


Be the Hero that Gotham Needs

by Riddle_of_the_sphinx



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Batman: Arkham (Video Games), DCU
Genre: Dorks in Love, Edward is part of the GCPD, Edward loves riddles, Hero Riddler, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Riddler in the Bat Family, Riddler was the Oracle before Oracle, Riddles, What-If, creating a family, younger Barbara Gordon, younger Dick Grayson, younger Jason Todd, younger Tim Drake
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-05
Updated: 2017-05-20
Packaged: 2018-05-24 22:46:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 54,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6169633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Riddle_of_the_sphinx/pseuds/Riddle_of_the_sphinx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Batman confronted Enigma he decided to give the man a choice. He could either become an ally to Batman and use his skills to become a hero that Gotham needs, or he could continue down the path that he was going down and most likely become Batman’s foe. Enigma decided to take Batman up on his offer of an alliance, and that one decision would forever intertwine Edward Nigma and Bruce Wayne together in ways that they never would have expected….</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The choice that started it all

**Author's Note:**

> I'll be posting this story up on my Fanfiction account Jet Set Radio Yoyo as well so you'll be seeing this story there under that name.

Batman frowned as he listened to the recording of the Joker when he was pretending to be Black Mask. Joker was an excellent actor. His voice impression was spot on, and his costume was an exact replica of Black Mask’s usual outfit. However, listening to these recordings that Enigma had showed that Joker wasn’t perfect. Joker’s love of chaos shinned through on occasion and Batman could hear this as he talked about the delicate balance of the city.

“Balance- balance is what’s wrong with this city. We need to upset the balance, kick it over, set it on fire, and then see what comes scurrying out.” 

Batman stopped the recording after he heard that and closed his eyes. What came out was a Bat. To be more specific what came out was a Bat, a mad haberdasher, a mystery man who knew how to use technology to drag everyone’s skeletons out of their closets, and almost every single criminal that Gotham could ever imagine. The balance had been shattered tonight, and it would take a long time for it to go back to the way it was. 

Heck, with the Joker around it might never go back to the way it was. Black Mask must have hated it. He liked balance. He liked being in control. He didn’t like chaos, and he only kicked the hornet’s nest when he knew exactly what would happen. Black Mask’s whole empire had crumbled in this one night due to upsetting the balance. Anyone who truly knew everything about Black Mask and his set up would know that this balance speech did not fit him at all. 

It was only too bad that Bruce only got the two recordings that Enigma had on Joker only after Joker had revealed himself. The second recording didn’t have any real fancy speeches, but Joker’s brief moment of confusion at someone calling him boss and almost relishing in that fact at the end just sort of cemented the fact that there was something off about Black Mask. For a brief moment Bruce had to wonder if anything would have changed tonight if he had found these recordings earlier.

Would he have figured out that the Black Mask that was running around wasn’t really Black Mask sooner? Would he have been able to prevent some of the things that happened tonight from happening if he did? If he had received this information a day or two ago instead of tonight could the chaos that Joker caused tonight be avoided? Could the people who died because of Joker been saved? Batman didn’t know, and he tried not to think about it too deeply. Batman could think about what could have happened all night long, but it wouldn’t change anything. 

For now he had to focus on the present. For now he had to focus on Enigma. Enigma was the only one left to deal with. Batman had just finished collecting the last of Enigma’s data packets. Of course the last recording that he got had to do with the Joker. The only thing left for him to do was to go back to Enigma’s hideout. What would happen once Batman got there he didn’t know. What he did know was that he hoped to talk to Enigma. What he really wanted to do was maybe convince Enigma to use his talents in a way that would help the city and not cause chaos in the streets at the same time. 

Enigma was a bit full of himself, and he was definitely snarky. However, the man had a talent with technology. Some of the mechanisms that Bruce had to solve in order to get access to the data packets had been rather ingénues. They were complicated enough puzzles to keep most people out, and some of them required equipment that most people wouldn’t have on hand or be able to get easily. The packet containers were also built in such a way that they would withstand even Batman’s explosive gel. If that didn’t prove that the man had some knowledge with technology then the Comms Towers and Network Relays that he had set up around the city certainly did. 

Then there was the information that Enigma had gathered. The man had information on almost everyone. He knew that Black Mask had been acting strange, he knew about Alberto Falcone becoming gradually more irrational, and he even had audio records of Bane and Lady Shiva talking about her master. Enigma knew things that Batman didn’t know, and some of the things that Batman had heard from Enigma’s recordings could have easily escaped Batman’s notice. Enigma was turning out to be one heck of an information broker. He could very well become the best information broker that Gotham had ever seen. 

All Batman knew was Enigma could use all of his talents to really make things better for Gotham. He could uncover vital information possibly faster than Batman could, and he could use that information to possibly prevent an event like this Christmas Eve from happening ever again. He could use his technology to prevent criminals from using their technology to hurt people. Enigma could do a lot of good things for the city. 

However, on the flip side of things Enigma could cause the worst damage to the city and to Batman. He could use his talents to impede the few good police officers that tried to protect the city by blackmailing them or by using his technology to make things harder for them. He could use his talents to figure out who Batman was. If Bane was able to do so then Enigma could as well. Enigma could become Batman’s greatest ally, or he could become one of his greatest foes. 

Batman was hoping that maybe just maybe Enigma could be an ally. He didn’t have much hope in having that happen. Enigma seemed pretty set in what he was doing, and he was not hiding his disgust of the Bat very well. Still, Batman wanted to talk to him and at least try to convince Enigma to use his talents for good. Maybe it was a hopeless effort, but it was still worth a try. 

“Alfred are you still on?” Batman asks over his comlink. 

Batman knows that he is, but he still can’t help but smile a little when he hears Alfred say “Of course I am, sir.”

“I’m going to Enigma’s hideout, and once I’m done I’ll be coming home.” Batman says as he finally opens his eyes and walks over to the edge of the roof.

The harsh winter wind blows around him as his cape flutters in the breeze. The suit mostly keeps him warm, but Batman can't help but stop for a moment to allow himself to shiver a little and shake some of the snow off of himself. 

“I’ll make sure to go and warm up the Christmas ham then, sir.” Alfred says. “So you’ll finally be able to shut down Enigma’s hideout?” 

“Yes, and hopefully with any luck I’ll be able to talk to him.” Batman says as he jumps off the roof and starts to glide over to the next building. 

He’s not too far away from Enigma’s base so it should not take him long to get there. 

“Talk to Enigma? What do you want to talk to him about?” Alfred asks.

“I want to talk to him in hopes of convincing him to use his skills for good, and if things go well enough maybe make him into an ally.” Batman said once he had landed on the roof of the next building. 

“Do you really think that Enigma would be willing to work with you?” Alfred asked.

“I honestly don’t know, but I have to at least try.” Batman said.

“Alfred, Enigma knew about Joker replacing Black Mask. He had recordings of it which makes me think he found out about all of this long before even I did.” Bruce said as he walked across the roof. “He has information on everyone, and I think most of the people that he has info on are not even aware of the fact that Enigma has dragged their skeletons out of the closet.”

“The man does seem to have a knack with uncovering secrets, and he seems to have some technologic knowhow.” Alfred said slowly. 

Batman stopped walking once he reached the edge of the roof and looked up. Hanging above his head was the platform leading up to Enigma’s HQ. From where he was standing Bruce could see the metal door that led to Enigma’s hideout. The green question marks that decorated the metal door stuck out like neon signs to Batman. He supposed the question marks were sort of like Enigma’s symbol, but right now all the question marks really did was make Batman think of the one question that was bouncing around in his head.

 _Would Enigma join Batman in helping to protect Gotham?_

“I….” Batman started to say only to fall silent. 

“Sir?” Alfred called out sounding slightly concerned.

“If I want to protect this city to the best of my ability then I am going to need all of the allies that I can get. If I learned anything tonight it’s that I shouldn’t try to take on the burden completely alone.” Batman finally said. “Enigma could become our greatest ally, or he could become our worst enemy.”

“If that’s the case then I truly hope that becomes a friend and not a foe.” Alfred said. 

“So do I.” Bruce muttered as he took out his grappling hook and shot it at the platform.

As he quickly shot up to the platform he heard Alfred say with just the slightest bit of humor in his voice “Although, I have a feeling that Enigma might be a little frustrating to work with.” 

As Bruce hulled himself up onto the platform the slightest hint of a smile crossed his face as he said “I get that feeling too.” 

The smile started to fade as Bruce opened the door, and by the time he stepped inside and walked into the elevator his smile had completely vanished. He pressed the button that would make the elevator go up and after a few seconds had passed the gated door slid closed behind him and the elevator slowly started making its way up to the top floor. As the elevator moved up they passed one floor after another, and as they passed by the floors Bruce got to see the large amount of monitors that Edward had set up on each floor. Every single monitor showed the same thing. They all showed the image of a man cloaked in shadows, and the only thing that was truly visible was the man’s glasses. All of the monitors casted a sickly green light that gave the whole area a sort of eerie look to it.

Upon reaching the top floor the gated door of the elevator slowly slid open and Batman stepped out into the room. The computer that he needed to destroy was right across from him. Monitors showing Enigma’s shadowy figure hung above the computer almost making it seem like an audience cloaked in shadows were watching him and waiting to see what Batman’s next move would be. Batman walked over to the computer, smashed his fist through the screen, and yanked the wires out. 

As Batman dropped the wires to the ground he heard Enigma say over his comlink “Well, look at that! You figured it out. I’m impressed. Annoyed too. But your achievement signals a level of intellect rarely seen in Gotham. It seems you’re quite the riddle…”

“As grateful as I am for the complement I’m going to have to cut you off right there.” Batman said before Enigma could say anything else. “I need to talk to you.”

“You need to talk to me? Oh what could the supposbily great detective want say to little ol’ me?” Enigma asked with some slight mocking in his voice.

“Let’s get the obvious thing out of the way first. I know that in the end nothing I did tonight will stop you. You have all of the information that you need to cause some damage, and that information will end up out in the open where everyone can see it regardless of what I do.”

Enigma was quiet for a moment before he asked “Then why did you bother?” 

“Shutting down your operation slowed down your information collection so that was worth doing.” Batman answered.

Enigma let out a small annoyed hum of understanding. Batman slowing down his information gathering was probably the major reason why Enigma said he was annoyed. Still, annoyed or not Enigma could get why Batman did what he did. 

“Also, collecting your data packs reveled useful information.” Batman said. 

That would probably inflate Enigma’s ego a bit, but hey it was true. 

“So you collected my packets to find information that you could never get on your own?” Enigma said smugly. 

“Yes, I did.” Batman said bluntly. 

“I….” Enigma started to say only to come to a screeching halt once Batman’s words finally finished processing in his head.

Enigma was silent for yet another moment before he finally said “What?” 

Apparently Enigma hadn’t been expecting Batman to pretty much say that he was right with what he said. Enigma was probably expecting him to say that he would have found the information fine on his own and that he didn’t need help in gathering data. Maybe he would have, or maybe he wouldn’t have. Maybe he would have found out the information when it was too late to be truly effective.

As much as Batman wished he could be perfect and get everything done all on his own he couldn’t really do that. He was capable of being too late to gather information if Joker’s suddenly replacing Black Mask tonight was anything to go by, and he was cable of making mistakes and Bane’s attack on the Batcave tonight proved that. The memory of Alfred almost dying tonight flashed in his head and Batman clenched his fists together at the very thought of it. He was lucky that Alfred had survived, and he was also lucky that Bane no longer remembered who he was. Those two things were one of the few good things to come out of this night.

 _‘Maybe you can add one more good thing to that list if this goes well.’_ A tiny hopeful voice murmured in the back of his head. 

Batman mentally shook his thoughts away as he continued to talk.

“You have talents Enigma. You are obviously good with technology, and your ability to gather information is some of the best that I have ever seen.”

“Well of course it is. I am the best at what I do.” Enigma said with quite a bit of pride.

Bruce could hear Enigma clear his voice over the comlink before he said “As much as I’m enjoying the ego massage I seriously doubt you came here to smash computers and stroke my ego.”

“You are correct, so I think I’ll stop inflating your ego and get right to the point.” Batman said.

He stared up at the shadowy figures in the monitors that were overhead as he said “You have talents that can be used to do great things to help this city, but if used irresponsibly you can cause serious damage to the city.”

“Is this going to turn into another speech about how I should not release my information out to the public because if it is then I’m just going to cut you off right now and tell you to cram it. Like it or not this dirty laundry is getting aired out for everyone to see.” Enigma said with slight annoyance in his voice. 

“That’s not what I’m going to say.” Batman said. “This city is full of corruption, and the GCPD is rotten to the core. There are a few good cops trying their best to help, but other cops keep them from doing their jobs either by either threatening them or just downright killing them if they can.” 

Bruce clinched his hands together tightly as he said “My usual way of doing things works when it comes to dealing with the likes of Copperhead and Joker, but that approach won’t work on corrupt cops or officials.” 

“Gee, how long did it take for you to figure out that you can’t punch your problems away?” Enigma asked with quite a lot of sarcasm. 

Bruce just ignored what he said in favor of saying “However, you can’t just release your information to every single news outlet in Gotham. Some will withhold facts from the public, and worst yet a few of those news outlets are controlled by the very corrupt officials that are causing problems for this city. If they get that information they might very well twist it to suit their needs. Not to mention the fact that there are some who would try to work the public into a mindless frenzy, and causing chaos with the public will do nothing to help.”

“Then what do you suggest I do then?” Enigma asked in an annoyed tone.

“I suggest that you give this information to someone who will tell the truth and the complete truth. Do you know Vicki Vale?” 

“The investigative reporter? I know of her. I saw the little news report that she did on you when you were brawling on the hotel rooftop with the musclehead from Santa Prisca.” Enigma said.

“Then you know what kind of reporter she is, and you know that she will put the information that you gathered to good use.” Batman said.

“Suppose I do as you say and give my information to Vicki and her news station. What happens after I do that?” Enigma asked slowly.

“I’ll come here again on the day after your decision has been made public and we can discuss starting an alliance.” Batman answered.

“So we will have a partnership then?” Enigma said all while sounding slightly surprised that Batman would offer that to him.

“Yes, if that’s how you wish to phrase it.” Batman answered. 

Enigma let out a small hum of thought before he asked “And if I don’t do that and just release my info to everyone the way I planned what will you do?”

“I will find you, and I will end your hacking escapades. You can run Enigma, but you can’t hide.” Batman answered without a hint of emotion. 

“So I suppose that means if I don’t play along you’ll tie me to a lamppost for the police to find or whatever else it is that you do to the people that you beat up.” Enigma said. “You are not exactly giving me much of a choice.” 

“That’s the point.” Batman said. 

“Yes, I suppose it is.” Enigma said. “Well, I’ll think about your offer. Keep your eyes on news Dark Knight it’s how you’ll figure out what choice I’ll make, and I promise you that you will learn some juicy information that I was able to uncover while you were punching the reject clown in Blackgate.”

With the promise to reveal new information that Batman didn’t know about reveled the comlink fell silent and soft almost unnoticeable click let him know that Enigma had signed off. Batman looked away from the monitors that loomed overhead and over at the door that he had yet to open. Since the computer was smashed it wouldn’t be able to let out those interruptive frequencies that had been keeping him from using his cryptographic sequencer on the electronic lock. Batman pulled his cryptographic sequencer out and used it on the lock. It only took a few seconds to figure out the password, and once that was done Bruce opened the now unlocked door and walked in.

It was a decent sized room with quite a few things in it. A shelf full of random junk was to the right. From a brief glance Bruce could see pipes, mechanical parts, and pressure pads. It was obvious that Enigma used this stuff to make the puzzles that Batman had to solve to get the data packs. A desk was shoved up against the wall and while the desk had nothing interesting on it the cork board hanging on the wall above the desk.

There were a few news clippings pinned to the board along with some photos and articles that had been ripped out of magazines. A few clips where of Harvey Dent. A few green question marks had been drawn around Harvey along with a quick sketch of Batman’s symbol done in green marker. The word ‘maybe’ was written on the paper as well. The idea of Harvey being Batman was almost laughable. Harvey was not a trained fighter, and while he was strong enough to hold his own the man would not last in a fight against a lot of men armed with guns. 

Still, he was around the same size as Batman and he had the right attitude. Harvey was a big vocal opponent against corruption in the city, and he had made it a mission to dismantle as many of the crime families as he could in Gotham. It was understandable that Enigma would consider him as an option for being Batman. However, it was the other pictures that caused Batman to really stop and stare. Pinned to the very middle of the board was a picture of Bruce Wayne. It was a picture of him. Drawn in what must have been black marker was Batman’s symbol along with a few question marks. One lone sentence had been scribbled onto the picture and underlined once.

**Strong possibility of being Batman**

_‘He’s figuring it out.’_ Batman thought. 

Why exactly Enigma was pinning Bruce as being Batman he couldn’t tell due to the fact that it looked like Enigma had taken most of his notes with him before he vacated the premises. However, it was obvious that Enigma was getting close to the truth.

 _‘This is just another reason to either get him on my side or shut down his operation.’_ Batman thought as he turned away from the board. 

He explored the rest of the room, and while he didn’t find any more information eh did find something interesting. Tucked away in the corner of the room sitting on a box was a strange sort of trophy. The trophy was a glowing green question mark attached to a metal stand. It was well crafted, and something told Batman that it was probably a prototype for something that Enigma was making.

Batman stared at the trophy for a few minutes before he picked it up. A quick check and scan of the trophy reveled that there were no bugs or tracking devices on it. It was just a regular and rather interesting looking knickknack. Batman gave a mental shrug before he turned and left the room with the trophy in hand. He had no real use for that thing, but it would make for a nice souvenir. At any rate he was done at Enigma’s hideout, and he was more than ready to go home. The ball was in Enigma’s court now and all Batman could do now was wait and see what choice he would make.….

\-------------------------------------

Edward watched as Batman left his hideout. Batman had taken his trophy with him which was fine considering the fact that Edward had made it for him. It was a sort of prize for finding all of Enigma’s datapacks, and it would be a reference for what the Dark Knight should look for. Truthfully, Edward hadn’t expected the Bat to do as well as he did. He also wasn’t expecting to have the Bat offer to form a partnership with him.

“You are indeed quiet the riddle Batman.” Edward murmured as he tapped his fingers down against his desk.

The question of what choice Edward would make when it came to possibly allying himself with the Bat was proving to be a bit of a riddle as well. Edward wanted to improve this corrupted hellhole that was Gotham. Like it or not this place was his home, and he did want to see it become at least a little bit better. This information that he had could do that. Edward moved his gaze over to the monitor that was displaying all of the info that Edward had been able to dig up on Gotham’s dear mayor.

The man had his fingers in quite a few pies in this city, and while maybe that on its own wasn’t a big deal the fact that most of his dealings was. He was using his station as mayor to make sure that the various crime families that paid him wouldn’t have any trouble with the cops when it came to selling their illegal wears. He had also been smuggling money from various places to line his own pockets, and for as bad as that was it wasn’t even scratching the surface of the mayor’s problems. If the regular citizens of Gotham saw this stuff they would flip their lids. There is no doubt in his mind that the mayor would have to step down if this info got out. 

Edward was sure that by using information that he gathered he could dismantle some of the crime families permanently. It would be more effective then Batman ruining around punching the heads of the crime families at any rate. However, maybe there was a place for Batman’s way of dealing with criminals. Granted the assassins that had came into the city where Batman’s fault, but to be equally fair Batman dealt with them. He caught them all and left them for the police to deal with instead of playing judge, jury, and executioner like he easily could have. 

Also, like it or not Edward was pretty sure that all the info in the world would stop that Joker guy. That man was clearly unhinged and all he wanted to do was cause chaos. He cared not for money or material gains nor did he care to keep some nice public image going on. The psycho clown image that he had going on was all there really was to him. Edward shook his head to rid himself of his thoughts. 

He was getting off subject. Right now he really needed to focus on what he would do about Batman. The Bat did show promise of being at least somewhat intelligent. He was able to solve all of Enigma’s puzzles so that showered that the man at least had a brain in his head that he actually bothered to use. Maybe just maybe if they teamed up they could do some good. If nothing else maybe working closely with the Bat would make it easier for Edward to figure out who he was.

 _‘Well, what are you going to do Edward?’_ A tiny voice in the back of his head asked. 

Edward just smirked as he leaned back in his seat. Oh, Edward knew what he was going to do. Maybe it was a stupid decision, but it would make life interesting. Edward only wished that he could see the Bat’s face once he saw what Edward’s decision was…..

\-----------------------------

“Master Bruce.” 

Bruce looked up from the papers spread across his desk to look over at Alfred.

“Edward Nashton has made his decision.” Alfred said.

“Enigma.” Bruce said without meaning too.

It had been a couple of hours since Bruce had given Edward the offer to become allies. Due to the high number of times Edward had connected to Bruce’s comlink Alfred had been given enough time to track the connection to Edward Nashton. Edward was part of the cybercrime division of the GCPD which was funny in an odd sort of way. At any rate at least him working for the GCPD showed that he was already using his skills for good.

Bruce had done some research about Edward and from what he could tell the man was honestly doing good and one of the few people working for the GCPD who was not corrupt. He also seemed to be the best at busting cybercrime, but thanks to the likes of Commissioner Loeb and most likely Officer Branden Edward wasn’t allowed to investigate a lot of good leads or bring in suspects that he had evidence on due to Loeb saying that his rather extensive collection of evidence wasn't enough. Bruce was starting to get why Edward was trying to do what he was doing. 

_‘Not that I didn’t sort of get it before.’_ Bruce thought before he grabbed the remote off of his desk and flipped the TV on. 

It was already set on Vicki’s news station so Bruce didn’t have to change the channel. He turned the TV on right when Vicki was midway through explaining things. 

“As you can see the recordings show that the elections that brought Hamilton Hill into office may have very well been rigged with the aid of known criminal Rupert Thorne. Police have promised to investigate these leads, and see just how many people in powerful positions are part of this scandal. In other news SWAT Officer Lieutenant Howard Branden has been suspended from his position due to trying to murder the vigilante Batman last night in an attempt to cash in on the one night bounty.”

As Vicki continued to talk about how Branden would most likely be fired, and that many other police officers were being investigated due to corruption Bruce asked “Is Vicki the only one with this information?”

Alfred smiled slightly as he said “She is indeed. It seems that Enigma has decided to take your offer.” Bruce smiled a little upon hearing that.

 _‘One more good thing to have come out of that night.’_ Bruce thought. 

Bruce looked over at Alfred and continued to smile that small smile of his as he said “Alfred, I think we just got ourselves a new ally…”


	2. Call me Riddler

“So you actually came.”

That was the very first thing Batman heard as he stepped out of the elevator and into the main computer room of Enigma’s HQ. Enigma wasn’t there of course, but the monitors bearing his shadowy figure were there.

“I said I would didn’t I?” Batman said as he walked into the room. 

He stopped in front of the monitors and looked up at them. It wasn’t like Enigma was actually looking back down at him from those monitors, but Batman wanted to be looking at something as he talked.

“You did.” Enigma confirmed. 

“So tell me Batman how do you like my handiwork? I turned it in to Vicki Vale just as you asked.” Enigma asked. 

“It’s rather effective at doing its job. Already the most corrupt cops are out of the GCPD.” Batman said with a faint smile. 

“The GCPD is already better off without the likes of Howard Branden and his ilk running around the place. Now maybe they can actually start to protect and serve Gotham and not the crime families hiding in the shadows.” Enigma said. 

He practically spat out Branden’s name which really gave Batman the impression that Enigma really hated the guy. Enigma probably had some stories to tell about the guy. Although, now really didn’t seem like a good time to ask about it even if Batman was curious.

Instead Batman just said “With the peaceful protests that have been taking place at City Hall it’s only a matter of time until the mayor will have to step down.”

Hearing that seemed to calm Enigma down a bit and he sounded downright smug when he said “Wonderful isn’t it? You see what happens when we use our brains to solve problems instead of just trying to punch all of our problems away?”

Bruce could already feel the beginning of a migraine coming in upon hearing that. 

“Anyway, since I have apparently passed your test it’s your turn to pass mine.” Enigma said. 

“My test?” Batman said in slight confusion. 

“You think I wouldn’t test you before I decided to join you? I have seen you fight Batman and while I care little for physical power I can say without any hesitation that your fighting skills are impressive. Also, since you were able to get all of my data packets I know you have something rattling around in that skull of yours.” Enigma said. “I want to test you to see if you have the intelligence to go with the muscles or if you just got very lucky last night.” 

Batman frowned slightly upon hearing that. He really didn’t want to spend all night going on a wild goose chase to solve who knows how many of Enigma’s puzzles. There was crime to fight after all. Granted, the crime levels would be down a bit since the chaos of Christmas Eve had ended not long ago, but there were still some escaped criminals from Black Gate that needed to be rounded up.

Enigma must have had a bit of an idea of what was going on it Batman’s head because he said “Now don’t get all grumpy on me. If you solve my puzzles I’ll give you a prize for each one solved.” 

“A prize?” Batman said with a single brow raised in interest.

“I imagine you want to track down the escaped thugs that were able to get out of Black Gate correct?” Enigma asked. 

“Correct.” Batman said.

“Well, you will be happy to know that I have already found a few of the rats running around Gotham and I have been keeping track of them. Granted my tracking of them isn’t as great as it could be since you destroyed a lot of my equipment, but there are still security cameras spread out throughout the city. They might not be my cameras but a few are hooked up in such a way that I can access them.” Enigma said. 

“So if I solve a puzzle I get told where they are?” Batman asked. 

“Or where the gang or group of lunkheads that they are teamed up with are based at. In those cases you can knock out two birds with one stone. You can catch them and their criminal buddies all at the same time.” Enigma said. “However, if that isn’t enough then maybe my big reward at the end should be enough to entice you to participate in my game.”

“And what is this big reward of yours?” Batman asked. 

“The reward is a surprise. If you figure out all of my puzzles then I’ll tell you what it is.”

“Very well I’ll participate in this game of yours.” Batman said. “Excellent!” Enigma said joyfully.

He actually sounded a little excited about this.

“Tell me Batman do you like riddles?” Edward asked. 

A faint smile briefly crossed Batman’s face upon hearing that. His mother had always been a lover of riddles. When he was a child she would sometimes ask him riddles to tax his brain. Batman didn’t like them quite as much as his mother did, but he did grow to enjoy them.

“I enjoy a good riddle now and then.” Batman finally answered. 

“Wonderful! I love riddles myself so expect to hear a lot of them from me.” Enigma said. “So riddle me this Batman. What is the room you enter without leaving?”

 _‘Interesting riddle….’_ Batman thought. 

It wasn’t one that he had heard before. 

_‘A tomb maybe?’_ He thought. 

A tomb was a building where people were put to rest. A place where you went when you died and you aren’t supposed to leave it again since it’s a final resting place. “A tomb.” Batman finally said.

“Correct! Very good Batman you got it right.” Enigma said. “Now there are a few tombs here in Gotham, but the one that I want you to go to is the one where a well-known architect is buried.”

“Cyrus Pinkney’s crypt?” Batman asked.

“Yes, and I suggest you hurry. There is someone there that you don’t want to miss.” Enigma said.

Batman raised a brow in slight interest upon hearing that. Someone he didn’t want to miss? An escaped convict perhaps? Edward promised to give him locations of known hideouts if he got his puzzles and apparently riddles correct. However, Batman expected to have to solve a few more puzzles before he got names of locations. Batman turned and walked toward the elevator. If he wanted answers he could get them by going to Cyrus Pinkney’s crypt. 

The elevator seemed to move a bit faster this time. Not to say that it moved slowly to begin with, but it was definitely moving a bit faster right now. Enigma was probably speeding the process up a little. That just made Batman a little more curious. He was getting the sinking suspicion that there was something rather important at the crypt. Upon reaching the top floor he got out of the elevator and stepped outside.

He walked toward the edge of the platform and stopped for a brief second. He took in a deep breath before he closed his eyes, jumped off the platform, and started to glide over to the closest rooftop. It didn’t take long for him to reach Cyrus Pinkney’s grave. Batman had only been there once, but he could still remember its exact location. It helped that he also didn’t run into any street crimes while he was making his way there so he didn’t have to stop and deal with anyone trying to break into a shop. 

Upon reaching the giant doors to Cyrus’ crypt he carefully reached out and opened the giant doors. The second he made an open just big enough to slide in he did so. Upon getting inside he carefully closed the doors behind him so that he wouldn’t make a sound. Once the door was securely closed behind him he glanced down the staircase that lead down to Cyrus’ coffin. Someone had been here. Candles had been set up on every step of the staircase which brightly lit the usually gloomy area up. The candles looked like they were just starting to melt so they had not been lit for very long. 

_Thirty days has September. April, June, and November._

Batman stood there and listened. He could hear someone calmly reciting a rhyme about the months of the year. The voice echoed in that gloomy crypt, and it was being said strongly enough that it almost sounded like the man who was saying it was standing right next to Batman.

_All the rest have thirty one. Except February alone. Which has twenty eight rain or shine. But on Leap Year twenty nine._

“Batman. I saw that you entered the crypt.” Batman could hear Enigma say over his comlink.

Batman didn’t respond. He didn’t want to alert the Calendar Man and let him know that he was there. Luckily, Enigma was smart enough to figure out why he wasn’t talking. 

“Calendar Man seems to have made the crypt a base of sorts tonight. I saw him enter only a couple of minutes before you showed up at my base. He’s not how I intended to start this night off, but catching him is priority one especially since a holiday is coming up soon.” Enigma said.

_‘New Year’s Eve…’_ Batman thought with a slight grimace. 

Calendar Man would do something on New Year’s Eve, and it wouldn’t be pretty. Enigma was right that he was priority one. If Batman could catch him tonight he could prevent him from killing anyone at a New Year’s Eve party. Batman steeled himself to face off against Calendar Man. There was only one way to get down to where Cyrus’ coffin was. There were no alternate paths that Batman could take to catch Calendar Man by surprise, and he couldn’t hide himself in the shadows and sneak attack Calendar Man.

All he could do was walk down the brightly lit tunnel to the main chamber of the tomb. Batman’s footfalls didn’t create a sound as he walked down the stone staircase. As Batman slinked down the stairs Calendar Man started up his mnemonics rhyme again. It was a slightly different variation of the rhyme that he had been chanting earlier, but it was essentially the same thing. 

_Thirty days has September. April, June, and November. All the rest have thirty one._

Upon reaching the bottom of the steps Batman wasn’t at all surprised to see that the Calendar Man was there. He was sitting on the edge of the Cyrus’ empty stone coffin with his eyes closed. He was kicking his legs back and forth ever so slightly almost as if he was a child waiting for a friend to show up. A small calendar was sitting on the coffin next to Calendar Man and a bookbag was on the floor leaning up against the coffin.

It was most likely had a weapon in it so Batman would have to get it away from Calendar Man. The candelabras that were set up in the room all had lit candles in them which gave the room a warm glow. The warmth of the light really didn’t fit the gloomy atmosphere or with Calendar Man’s chillingly calm reciting of the month rhyme. 

_Except February alone. To which we twenty eight assign. Till Leap Year gives us twenty nine._

Upon finishing the rhyme the man opened his eyes and gave Batman a calm smile. He would almost say that the smile was friendly looking one. However, while his smile was friendly the Calendar Man’s eyes were absolutely void of any emotion. His eyes were completely and utterly dead. 

“How nice it is to see you Batman. I was afraid I wouldn’t see you again before the year ended.” The man said.

“Julian I’m taking you in.” Batman said.

“Whatever for? Is this about old Judge Harkness? What I did to him was just a simple act of self-preservation. He promised that he would see me hang I just made sure to pay him back for that.” 

_‘Judge Harkness…?’_ Batman thinks slowly.

He didn’t remember hearing anything about the Judge on the news. Bruce clinched his fists together upon thinking of the dead Judge. It figures that Calendar Man would choose to kill the man who sentenced him to the electric chair for his Christmas crime.

 _‘Enough of this.’_ Batman thought as he quickly grabbed his hook shot and aimed it at the backpack.

With a pull of the trigger the hook shot out and latched onto the handles of the bag before yanking it back over to Batman. Calendar Man tried to grab the bag, but he was too slow. Upon getting a hold of the bag Batman took quick notice of its heavy weight, but he didn’t give himself any time to think about it. He just flung the bag up the stairs behind him before he launched himself at Calendar Man. 

Calendar Man was a big man and he was stronger than your average Joe, but he was no Bane. With no weapons at his disposal and no plans at hand Calendar Man would be no challenge. Batman moved in such away that Calendar Man got hit hard with his cape. Being hit with the fabric was just enough to cause the man to stumble a bit. Batman took that chance to grab the man’s legs and yank them off his feet. Calendar Man fell to the ground with a thud and his head smacked against the cold stone ground with a loud thwack. It was hard enough to disorient the man, but not enough to knock him out.

 _‘Unfortunate.’_ Batman thinks as he bends the man’s right leg in such a way that it would break. 

The man grits his teeth together as Batman snaps his leg, but he doesn’t let out a single sound of discomfort. Batman doesn’t really expect him to. Calendar Man was made of sterner stuff then most other people. He wouldn’t go out easy. Batman’s shock gloves are all charged up and ready to use if he needs him, but he’s going to hold off on using them if he can. Batman starts punching and he doesn’t stop for anything.

He doesn’t even stop until Calendar Man’s eyes fall shut and he stops slamming his fists against his jaw. Batman stills and stares down at the man. His nose is bloody but not broken. He has a black eye, but it would heal. Batman’s jaw ached and there so no doubt in his mind that he would have a bruise on his chin, but that too would heal with time. Honestly, it was a miracle that none of his teeth got knocked out. He stands and stares down at Calendar Man. He’s out cold, and he will out cold for a couple of hours at least. 

“Enigma.” Batman calls out over his comlink.

“Batman? Did everything go alright? Have you captured Calendar Man?” 

“Calendar Man has been knocked out. He’s waiting in Cyrus Pinkney’s crypt for the police to pick him up.”

Enigma is quiet for a moment before he says “Alright, an anonymous tip to the police has been sent and they should be on their way. I suggest leaving now unless you want to have a chat with a couple of cops.” 

Batman immediately started to walk up the stairs and as he walked he asked “Have the police found Judge Harkness’ body?”

“Harkness? Yes, his body was found hanging from his roof. Someone had used his Christmas lights to strangle him and they used the lights to turn him into a human Christmas ornament. The Judge was hated by many people due to him sending a lot of guys to the electric chair so police had a lot of suspects for the case. From what I understand they didn’t want to say anything until they knew for sure who it was and the drama from Christmas Eve had died down.” Enigma said. 

“Calendar Man is your killer.” Batman said as he reached the top of the steps and opened the door. 

The sound of police sirens could be heard in the distance. With each passing second the sirens grew louder and louder and it was becoming pretty clear that the cops were coming right toward the crypt.

As Batman used his hookshot to pull himself up to the roof of a nearby office building Enigma said “Calendar Man tell you about the Judge? I shouldn’t be surprised Calendar Man had a motive, and if he was going to kill anyone it would be the Judge. Calender Man likes to talk about his kills so the police shouldn’t have any issues in getting a confession.”

By the time Batman’s feet touched the roof two cop cars had arrived. Four cops were at the scene and they quickly made their way down to the crypt. 

As Batman watched them he heard Enigma say with a slight sigh “I wasn’t expecting to start the night off with you bagging a big name villain. I don’t think anything else that you do tonight will top bringing that maniac.”

“Perhaps not, but the night is still young.” Batman says with a slight smile. 

“That is very true. How about we return to my challenge then?” Enigma said.

Batman said nothing for a few seconds, but once he saw the cops dragging Calendar Man out of the crypt in handcuffs and carefully put him into the back of one of the cop cars Batman finally said “Alright, what is your next challenge?” 

“Some try to hide, some try to cheat, but time will show, we always will meet. Try as you might, to guess my name, I promise you’ll know, when you I do claim. What am I?” Enigma asks.

“Death. You can’t hide from death.” Is all Batman says.

“Very good you got it right, but don’t get too excited. That was one of my easy riddles. Anyway, go to the church that Cyrus Pinkney designed. There’s something in the graveyard that you need to find.”

Batman had to wonder if Enigma was trying to rhyme there at the end or if he did that by accident, but he decided not to ask. Instead he made just made his way to the church. It didn’t take long to get there and upon reaching the church grounds Batman stopped for a moment to look around. The graveyard is old and abandoned much like the old church. No one got buried here anymore. The whole graveyard was wildly overgrown and it showed that no one had tended to the place in years. His eyes scanned the area trying to find whatever it was that Enigma wanted him to find. 

It didn’t take him long to find what he was looking for. Tucked away in the corner of grave hidden by the thick roots of a dead tree was a green question mark trophy. It’s soft green light shimmered softly from its hiding spot. It was the only bright colorful thing here in the lonely graveyard that was covered in a thin layer of snow. The trophy was sitting on a small metal plate the size of a baseball diamond, and when Batman approached thick metal bars popped out from some secret compartments that were in the metal plate. The bars surrounded the trophy creating a cage around the trophy. 

“It won’t be that easy.” Enigma practically sang out.

“I figured it wouldn’t be.” Batman said. 

Batman just stood there and stared at the trophy for a moment. There really wasn’t anything around that seemed to be a part of this little puzzle. There were no switches for him to hit, and a quick scan with detective mode showed no wires attached to the metal pad leading off to something that Batman needed to interact with. The bars of the cage could not be broken by any of his tools nor could the bars be removed with his bare hands. Maybe the cage only stayed up when he was near it? He took a couple of steps away, but the cage stayed in place. Batman took his hook shot out and used it to yank himself up to the church roof. When he got to the roof he quickly turned around just in time to see the cage go down. 

_‘I get it now.’_ Batman thought.

Just being away from the cage wasn’t enough it seemed. He had to actually be out of the graveyard to get the trophy. 

_‘Clever.’_ Batman thought as he shot his hook shot at the now exposed trophy. 

The hook quickly grabbed the trophy and yanked it back to Batman. The second he had the trophy in hand he heard Enigma ask “I am the hole in the night, the ever watchful eye. I return in a cycle, to enlighten the sky. What am I?”

Batman thought for a moment, but the answer came to him when he looked up at the sky and saw the moon shinning down on him. 

“The moon.” Batman said.

“Very good! You are doing quite well so far Batman.” Enigma said. “Anyway, I have a prize for you. You know the Telebit Electronic store?” 

“The one in the Bowery?” Batman asked. 

He was already starting to make his way there. The secound he heard the store's name he knew something bad was going on there.

“That’s the one. A Bob Ceder and his idiotic friends are there trying to break in. I believe he's one of the men that escaped from Blackgate.” 

“Have they gotten in yet?” Batman asked.

“No. They have not. They….” Enigma started to say only to stop. 

“Wait never mind they got in. They were able to lock pick the door amazingly enough.” Enigma said. 

He honestly sounded like he didn’t know if he should be impressed that they had been able to do that or not. Batman was able to get to the store rather quickly and when Batman reached the business he could see three men through the store front window trying to break into a locked case that seemed to be full of cell phones. 

Batman was able to just open the door and walk right in and the second he stepped inside he heard one of the men yell out “Why is this lock so freaking hard to open?” 

One look at the guy showed Batman that the man trying to break the lock was indeed Bob. Batman quickly ducked down into one of the nearby aisles and started to slowly slink over to where the men were. They hadn’t heard him come in and if Batman was quiet enough then he could sneak attack them. 

“Freaking? Seriously? You can’t just curse like a normal person?” Batman heard another man say.

“Shut up Jacob. I’ll curse however the hell I want.” Bob growled out.

“Freaking is not a curse word.”

“Shut up!” Bob hissed.

Batman got close enough so that he only a few inches away from the three men, but before he could stand up the computer monitors that were lining the wall suddenly flickered on. The whole store was suddenly clocked in a sickly green glow, and the shadowy image of Enigma himself appeared on the screens. 

“What the hell?” Bob muttered as he took a step back. 

Batman also took a step back just so that Bob wouldn’t slam into him.

“Instead of having a dull conversation on curse words maybe the three of you should be questioning your life decisions.” Enigma said while his voice boomed out of the computer speakers. 

His voice sounded different then how it sounded over Batman’s comlink. It had a sort of electronic buzz to it. It also had a weird stuttering effect to it every once in a while too. The word life repeated itself about five times. It sounded like robot that was malfunctioning. It was a little unsettling, and the fact that it sounded like every single speaker in the building that was connected to a computer that was turned on was being used to broadcast his voice really wasn’t helping. It gave Enigma’s voice a loud booming quality to it. It was almost overwhelming with how loud it was. 

“S-shut up you electronic freak! Who the hell are you anyway?!” Bob managed to stutter out.

Enigma didn’t answer at first. He just laughed. If Enigma’s talking wasn’t unsettling the laughing was. His laughter was a garbled electronic mess. You could tell he was laughing, but it kept switching pitches. One second it was high pitched and the next it was low pitched and sounded like the deep laugh of a demon. The men cringed at the sound and seemed to shrink away from the monitors a bit more. Enigma was scaring them. Enigma was actually scaring them. Batman was officially intrigued. 

When Enigma finally stopped laughing he said “These winged creatures often scare people. If you touch one you are brave. They’re often found just hanging out. Upside down inside a cave. What am I?” 

The men looked unsure of how to respond, and after giving them a few seconds to think Enigma said “Too stupid to figure it out? Let me answer it for you then. The answer is bats, and I happen to be the partner of the Bat. I see everything gentlemen, and if you do something against the law I tell the Bat. Now guess who just did something against the law.” 

Batman decided that now was a good time to jump into action. He quickly stood up and grabbed Bob’s two partners and slammed their heads together. Bob whipped around just in time to see Batman drop his two unconscious friends and allow them to fall to the ground. Bob screamed. He screamed so loud that he could almost wake the dead with that yell. The man stumped back only to lose his footing a smack his head against the case that he had been trying to break into only a few minutes ago. 

That fall ended up knocking him out and as he slid down to the ground Batman heard Enigma say “Well, I wasn’t expecting him to knock himself out, but I suppose that works out rather well.”

Batman knelt down and checked Bob out to make sure he was OK. He was still breathing, and while he would need a doctor to check him out he would probably be fine. “What was that all about?” Batman asked as he stood up and looked over at the closest computer monitor.

“You like? It’s a voice modifier that I created during my free time. It does a rather good job in scaring dimwitted fools.” Enigma said all while sounding rather proud of himself for making such a thing. 

“Why expose your existence in such a way?” Batman asked.

“If I’m going to do this whole vigilante thing then I want at least some recognition.” Enigma said. 

“This isn’t about the recognition.” Batman snapped.

“Yes, yes it’s about helping people.” Enigma said with a sigh. “If it makes you feel any better there is a practical reason for this as well. You saw how scared they got when they heard me.” 

Batman could just imagine the smile on Enigma’s face as he said “To them I appear to be a living conundrum with an inhuman voice, and they can be lead to believe that I can see everything that they do and report it all to you. I imagine that would make them rather paranoid since they can never be completely sure if I’m watching them or not.”

“So you are giving them another thing to fear?” Batman asked with a hint of a frown on his face. 

“Yes, that’s it exactly.” Enigma said, but to Batman it sounded a bit like an excuse that Enigma was latching onto.

“Putting fear in the hearts of thugs is part of the whole vigilante thing. That’s the whole reason why you dress up like an overgrown bat after all. Unless there is some other reason for the Bat thing, but if there is I really don’t want to know what that reason is.” Enigma said with a hint of teasing in his voice. 

Batman didn’t smile at the fact that Enigma was implying that there was a rather unsavory reason why he was dressed as a bat.

Enigma grew serious again and said in a rather stun tone of voice “Anyway, I’m not letting you take all of the credit for capturing criminals Batman. If we are going to be partners we will be equals. I won’t be your silent sidekick that nobody knows about.”

Batman could feel himself getting a bit annoyed again. It was becoming rather clear to him that Enigma wanted some recognition for catching criminals. This job wasn’t about the recognition, and getting a lot of attention for himself could become rather dangerous. If enough people learn about his existence they may try to figure out who he is and hunt him down so that they could silence him forever. 

Still, one could argue that the same would happen to him in his regular life. The guy was the head of the Cyber Crime Division, and if he caught a rather vengeful criminal they could try to kill him in revenge for bringing some digital information that they didn’t want known out into the light. That and the electronic voice thing had done a good job for putting the thugs on edge. He didn’t know how long that would work at scaring anyone, but if nothing else Enigma chattering with criminals could be a good distraction if Batman ever needed it. Batman sighed as he ran his hand down his face. He really didn’t like this, but there was not much he could do about it. If Enigma wanted to be known he would do it rather Batman liked it or not.

 _‘You knew working with Enigma was going to be difficult from day one. You really should not be surprised by this.’_ Batman thought with a mental sigh. 

“Alright, fine do what you wish.” Batman finally said. “Have you called the cops to come and pick these men up?”

“I sent an anonymous tip just now.” Enigma said. 

Batman said nothing to this he just turned and walked out the door. 

As he stepped outside he heard Enigma’s normal voice say over the comlink in a rather cherry tone “Well, my fellow vigilante let’s return to my challenge. We have a long night ahead of us….”

\------------------------------------------

Tonight did indeed end up being a long night, but surprisingly it was also a very productive one. Batman was expecting Enigma’s game would slow him down and he would end up finding more trophies then he would criminals. However, he ended up bagging more criminals then trophies. Usually what would happen is that Batman would answer a riddle, find a trophy, and then Enigma would send him off after some thugs. 

He would usually end up taking down six to ten groups of thugs before he would get another riddle. Sometimes Enigma would stop talking mid riddle just to send Batman off after someone who was trying to break into a home or store. If nothing else this did show Batman that Enigma did seem to be more concerned with stopping bad guys then testing Batman. 

This was good to Batman. It at least showed that his new ally was treating the crime fighting thing at least somewhat seriously. As for Enigma’s riddles and puzzles they were pretty cleaver. The riddles were creative and the puzzles were interesting. Sometimes he just had to find a trophy that was hidden rather well, sometimes he had to find a hidden switch that he need to hit with a batarang, and other times he had to step on pressure pads in a certain order quickly enough to open the cages that the trophies where in. 

As for Enigma letting his existence be known to criminals he didn’t do it too often although that could be due to the fact that there really were not anything around that Enigma could hack into. However, when there was Enigma always did the same thing. He would freak the criminals out with his sudden approach and electronic stuttering, and he would distract them long enough for Batman to sneak around and knock the criminals out without much effort. 

After the hellish night of Christmas Eve it was rather nice to have a nice relaxed night where he didn’t have any issues taking the thugs down. By the time that three A.M rolled around Batman was ready to call it a night. He had just taken down a group of thugs that had been trying to break into a liquor store, and after dealing with them he had used his hook shot to launch himself up to a nearby roof so that he wouldn't be spotted by the police would be arriving to pick the thugs up. 

As he stared down at thugs that he had just recently taken down from his rooftop perch he asked Enigma “So do you have any more riddles for me, or have I proved myself to you?”

“You have proven yourself to be rather intelligent. I dare say that you might almost be my intellectual equal.” Enigma said all while sounding rather happy.

“Almost?” Batman asked with a slight smile.

“You heard what I said.” Enigma said with a hint of amusement in his tone.

“Well, since I proved myself to you and it’s getting close to morning now might be a good time to wrap things up.” Batman said. 

“Hang on a moment.” Enigma said. “You remember how I said I had a big prize for you if you completed by challenges? That prize is the last thing we should deal with before we call it a night.” 

Batman raised a single brow in curiosity upon hearing that. He had completely forgotten about the major prize that Enigma had told him about oh so long ago.

“What is it that you want us to do?” The bat themed vigilante asked. 

Enigma was silent for a moment before he slowly asked “Do you want to put the final nail in Mayor Hamilton Hill’s coffin?” 

Batman frowned a bit at the sudden question only to hear Enigma say “Hang on maybe I should explain first. Have you heard about Rachelle Jacques and Kate O'Malley?”

“I have.” Batman said softly. 

He knew about the girls. Their bodies had been fished out of the Gotham Bay back in November. Batman had tried to find out some information on them, but he hadn’t been able to find much. 

“The case about the girl’s murders have gone cold, and the police have no leads. However, I think we could crack it.” Enigma said. “You took down Anarchy on Christmas Eve. Did you listen to his mad revolutionary jabbering on the radio?”

“I did, and I seem to remember him saying that Hamilton Hill had something to do with their deaths.” Batman said slowly.

“Anarchy does not trust authority or anyone with the slightest bit of power, but in this case I actually believe he is correct when he said that our dear Mayor Hamilton is to blame for their demise.” Enigma said.

“You think you know how to prove it?” The vigilante asked.

“I **know** how to prove it.” Enigma said all while putting special emphases on the word know. 

“You know Rupert Thorne rigged the election to get the mayor into office. Do you also know that Thorne is famous for blackmailing people?” Enigma asked.

“You think he has something on the murder of those two girls?” 

“Oh, I know he does. One of the ways that he keeps people loyal to him is by keeping blackmail on everyone that he works with. If anyone ever thinks of trying to blow the whistle on him he can pull out the blackmail that he has to keep them silent. He has to have something on the mayor that connects him to the murder of those girls. If the mayor truly is involved in their killings then Rupert would have info on it. Heck, I bet he had some of his men dump the bodies of the girls into the water.” Enigma said. 

Enigma sounded so sure that Rupert would have something about those murders. Batman wasn’t so sure how true that was, but Enigma was convinced.

 _‘Well, it won’t hurt to check. Rupert Thorne is wanted for arrest anyway.’_ Batman thought.

“You got the address of where he is hiding?” Batman asked. 

“Of course I know where that rat is hiding. If you follow my instructions closely I’ll be able to lead you right to him.” 

Batman could just imagine the vicious grin that Enigma probably had on his face when he heard the man say “No more talk. I think it’s time we caught ourselves a blackmailing rat…” 

\------------------------------------------------------

“We need to get out of here boss the Bat is here!”

Batman winches slightly at the shrill cry of the panicking thug. The guy had a voice that made nails on a chalk board sound pleasant in comparison. Batman had found Rupert’s hideout. It was in an abandoned warehouse near the outskirts of Gotham. The place was filled to the brim with henchmen, but Batman had been able to take everyone but the people in the office down. He hadn’t been spotted, but knocking out about half of the people in the warehouse was enough to cause someone to raise the alarm. 

Now Rupert was desperately trying to pack away anything important and run away with what few men he had left. Batman edges forward a bit all while trying his best not to create any sounds in the ventilation duct that he was in. It was a little hard to do. Even taking a slight step in the metal air ducts caused the sound of his footsteps to loudly echo through the air duct. Luckily, no one seemed to be able to hear it. Still, Batman wanted to be as careful as possible about the noise and every banging noise that his feet made against the metal made him mentally cringe.

“You think I don’t know that! Instead of wasting time yelling me you can either stand guard at the door or help me pack this stuff up!” Batman heard Rupert yell. 

Rupert was standing at his desk hastily stuffing papers, money, and memory sticks into a suitcase. The papers and flash drives were his blackmail material most likely. There were a total of six men in the room including Rupert. Two men with guns were standing at the only door into the room. Rupert was at his desk near the back of the room while his nervous thug stood nearby with a crowbar clutched tightly in hand. The last two men were standing near the ventilation duct and unfortunately they had guns. 

Any attempt to try and take the grate off would catch their attention and lead to Batman being filled with lead. Other than the vent and door there were no other entrances into the room. There was no window that Batman could break into. A glance at his disruptor showed that it wasn’t ready to be used again. He was seriously starting to regret using it on the thugs that were in the other room. 

_‘Nothing you can do about it now.’_ Batman thought. 

Right now he had to think about what to do now. He could try to grab them while they were making their escape, but that chance that one of them could slip away was not a risk that he wanted to take. It figured that Rupert had to make his office the one room in the whole abandoned warehouse the one room that didn’t have any windows in it.

 _‘There has to be some way distract them.’_ He thought.

A quick glance around the room showed that there wasn’t anything in the room that he could use to cause a distraction. However, that all changed when he spotted the computer on Rupert’s desk. 

He stared at the machine for a few seconds before he turned on his comlink and whispered “Enigma?”

“Batman? Have you found Rupert?” Enigma asked quickly.

“I need you to give me a distraction so I can take down Rupert.” Batman ordered. 

“No please?” Enigma asked. 

Batman wanted to assume that he was joking, but it was a little hard to tell. Well, joke or not Batman had neither the time nor the patience to deal with this. 

“Enigma….” Batman hissed with annoyance very clearly heard in his voice.

“It’s rather easy to ruffle your feathers isn’t it?” Enigma said in amusement. “Give me a second and I’ll see what I can do.”

Batman only had to wait about three minute for Edward to work his magic. 

**_Oh, R-r-r-r-r-rupert….._**

The stuttering electronic voice was loud enough to be heard by everyone in the room. Batman couldn’t help but wonder if Rupert’s computer speakers had been turned up at high volume or if Enigma had somehow done something to make himself sound louder. Rupert’s timid henchmen’s eyes grew wide while everyone else just looked over at the computer. 

“You idiots keep your eyes on the door! Batman's still here and that door is his only way in here in case you forgot!” Rupert snapped at the men by the door.

They reluctantly returned their gaze back to the doors, but the two men that were near the air vent were now looking away while Rupert. Batman didn’t waste any time to pry the grate off. 

As he did so he heard Rupert say “Just who the heck are you supposed to be?”

The second he said that Batman had been able to pry the grate off and slowly slide it away. As for Enigma instead of answering the question he asked “The fact this mammal has webbed wings makes it a one of a kind, and contrary to the saying none of these creatures are blind. Tell me Rupert what am I?” 

As Enigma asked this Batman quickly slid out of the air vent and slammed the heads of the two men who had been standing nearby together. That alone was enough to knock them out and thanks to how loud Enigma was no one heard a thing. Batman slowly lowered the men down to the floor before he slowly made his way over to the men that were standing guard at the door. 

As he did this he heard Rupert angrily said “A riddle? What are you a riddler? Do you have nothing better to do then to waste my god damn time?”

“A riddler…?” Enigma said slowly as Batman slammed the door guards heads together and let them slump down to the floor. 

Batman couldn’t say that he had ever heard of the word riddler before, but Enigma seemed quite intrigued by it. If anything he actually sounded like he liked the word.

“Riddler. That’s a rather creative name for me. Did you burn out the few brain cells that you have to come up with it?” Enigma mocked.

Rupert was positively steamed now. 

“Why you litt-“ Rupert started to say only to be cut off by Enigma.

“Do you really want to waste your time talking to me? Don’t you have a bat infestation to worry about?” 

The second Edward finished saying that Batman struck the guy with a crowbar. He didn’t even bother being quiet with this one. He just slammed the man down into the ground and knocked him out. Once he was out cold Batman slowly rose to his feet and loomed over Rupert. As far as looks go Rupert looked like your generic mob boss. He was a slightly overweight man in a nice suit and neatly combed brown hair. Well, he wasn’t going to look nice for much longer once Batman was done with him.

“Batman.” Rupert was able to gasp out. 

Batman said nothing. He just glared down at the man and took a single step toward him. Rupert stumbled back and cried out “What do you want?”

“To turn you black and blue preferably.” Enigma answered for Batman. 

Rupert turned his gaze to his computer and said “Listen Riddler guy I’ll pay you guys. I’ll give you whatever you want to just look the other way and leave me alone!”

Batman just glared down at the man while Enigma laughed.

“Wrong thing to say.” Enigma said while the word wrong repeated itself over and over again.

**_Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong…._ **

Rupert flinched each time the word wrong was repeated like each word was a slap to the face and not a sound just be shouting out from his computer speakers. 

When it finally stopped Enigma said “You are going to jail Rupert and you will rot there, but while you will be gotten rid of and forgotten you can take comfort in knowing that you have given a name to Gotham’s newest hero.”

Enigma sounded downright devilish when he said “Let it be known that you are the one who named the man that Gotham’s underworld will learn to fear.”

Batman punched Rupert and that one punch was enough to take him down. Rupert was not a fighter so it wasn’t surprising that he went down with one hit. The second Rupert slammed down to the ground Batman asked “Are you really thinking of calling yourself Riddler?” 

“Yes, I think I will call myself Riddler. It rolls off the tongue rather, and it’s a lot more creative then the name you stuck me with.” Enigma said.

“So from now on you’re the Riddler?” He couldn’t help but ask even though he really didn't have to. 

This felt random and Batman couldn’t believe that the man was seriously having a name change right here right now. He really had to wonder if the man was joking right now. 

“From now on I’m the Riddler.” The now newly named Riddler said. 

“Fine, but no more changing your name. I’m not going to deal with you changing your name every week because you found one that you thought sounded better.” Batman said.

“I’m not going to change my name again, and don’t get all mad that I was able to find a better name while you’re stuck with your generic superhero name.” Riddler said. 

Batman rolled his eyes but said nothing as he walked over to the suitcase and stared down at its content. A bunch of flash drives, files, and bundles of cash had been haphazardly tossed into the suitcase.

As he glanced over the items he heard Riddler say “Alright, I left a tip with the police and they should be on their way over now. I know you probably want to go through the files to see if you can’t find your next punching bag, but please hold off on that. If we want to catch the mayor and any other officials that Rupert has some nasty information on it’s best if the police go through it.”

“The info on the memory sticks will probably be encrypted.” Batman pointed out. 

“Oh, don’t worry their head of cybercrime is an excellent hacker and he can deal with the encryptions easily.” Riddler said with quite a bit of pride in his voice.

“Probably because the head of cybercrime is you.” Batman said with a slight smile.

“Yes, that’s…..” Riddler started to say only to trail off into silence. 

Batman just stood there and continued to smile as Riddler finally processed what he said. 

“You know?!” Riddler finally shouted. 

Batman winched a bit at the loud yelling in his ear, but he never stopped smiling as he suggested “You might want to make your broadcast a bit more secure.”

“I…You…” Riddler sputtered clearly at a loss for words.

Batman found it pretty entertaining to actually cause the man to be speechless especially since he usually was never at a loss for words. Riddler was a bit of a chatterbox, or at least it seemed like he was so moments like this were probably a rarity. 

Riddler was able to recover after a few more minutes of sputtering as he said “Enjoy this while it lasts Batman. I’ll figure out who you are eventually.”

“I don’t doubt that….” Batman said as he turned and started to leave the building.

It was close to dawn which meant that it was time for the Bat to return to the cave and it was time for the Riddler to go off the air until the next night. Tonight had gone rather well surprisingly enough, and Batman hoped that future nights that involved him working with the now named Riddler would go just as well…..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Info time!
> 
> Riddler's electronic stuttering: In the story whenever Riddler's electronic stuttering happens the words that are being repeated will look like this- _**Example of electronic Riddler stuttering**_


	3. New Year's Eve Mayhem

“Happy New Year’s Eve everyone.”

The new year’s greeting is the most tired cranky sounding greeting that Edward had ever heard in his life. He looks up from his laptop just in time to see Detective Bullock walk past him.

“I got you a present for you from our raid of that hideout that we had been staking out at the docks in Amusement Mile.” Bullock said as he tossed a flash drive over to Edward.

Edward caught the flash drive, but he ignores it for the moment in order to watch James Gordon come into the break room. Barbara who had been sitting in a chair nearby on her own laptop looked up and smiled upon seeing her father.

“Dad!” She called out as she got up and hurried over to her dad. 

As she went and hugged her father Edward couldn’t help but smile a slightly bitter smile. He liked seeing that the kid had a good relationship with her father, but seeing how loving Gordon was with his kid just made him think about how unloving his own father was. Edward mentally shook the thought away and glanced over at Bullock as he plopped down into the chair that was next to Edward. 

Edward wordlessly shoved the box of donuts that were on the table over toward the man. Bullock lit up a bit upon seeing the box and wasted no time opening the box up to grab a chocolate donut. Edward rolled his eyes bit upon seeing that. The man had a donut obsession that was just plain unhealthy. 

“What are you doing here Barbara? I thought you were going to wait in my office.” Edward heard Gordon ask.

“I forgot to bring my laptop charger so I asked Edward if he had a spare that could work with my laptop lying around.” Barbara answered.

Gordon looked over at Edward while Ed just shrugged a little and said “I had an extra charger to lend her, and after giving it to her she asked if she could wait for you with me. I had no problems with it so I said yes.”

Gordon smiles a bit as he says “Thank you for that Edward.”

Edward waves the thanks away as he said “No thanks necessary. Barbara’s a good kid and smart to so it was no trouble to me.”

Gordon just continues to smile while Barbara went back over to her chair. Edward really didn’t mind Barbara being around. She knew her way around computers, and she was polite. She was at the police station often enough that Edward had more or less gotten used to her presence. He knew that the reason why she was here today was due to the fact that Gordon was still weary of letting Barbara stay home alone. Until recently Commissioner Loeb and his ilk had some rather unsavory characters hanging around their house ready to do who knows what. They were not hanging around the house anymore since Loeb died, but since that was a pretty recent event it made sense that Gordon was still a bit on edge.

Edward shakes these thoughts away and looks at what Gordon had in his hands.Gordon had few files in hand probably on cases that he needed to look over. Gordon dumped the files on the table while Edward looked down at the flash drive that he had been given. It was a white flash drive with Penguin’s symbol embedded onto it.

“Where the heck did you get this?” Edward asked.

“You know those ‘Anarky’ henchmen bosses that are running around?” Bullock asked all while adding finger quotes around the name Anarky. 

Edward frowned a bit upon hearing this. He knew about them. They had been popping up occasionally during the peaceful protests to pretty much cause riots. They claimed to be part of Anarky’s group and that they were continuing where he left off. None of the police really believed it. Anarky’s group fell apart when the kid was caught and brought in, and while these Anarky henchmen claimed to be part of Anarky’s group they really were not. Other than dropping Anarky’s name a few times they did nothing that aligned with the kid's beliefs. They attacked anyone regardless of what social class they were from, and they would raid shops regardless of if they were small mom and pop stores or big chain stores. They were simple looters taking advantage of the protests that were going on. Edward knew them very well. 

“You found this in one of the Anarky guys hideouts?” Edward asked with some slight surprise.

“Yeah, saw the symbol on the flash drive and thought it would be best to bring it to you. If it’s encrypted or whatever you can unencrypt it.” Bullock said before he took a big bite of his donut. 

“When do you need the stuff in this?” Edward asked Gordon as he held the flash drive up.

“As soon as you can unless you got something that needs your immediate attention.” Gordon said. 

Edward glanced down at his laptop. He was just trying to unencrypt some files on a flash drive that they got from Rupert Thorne’s hideout. It’s what he had spent most of his time working on. It wasn’t hard to uncover the files, but there were a lot of them so it was pretty time consuming. 

“I can work on it now. I have just working on the Rupert Thorne files so it’s nothing that I need to work on right now.” Edward said as he saved what progress he had.

“Rupert Thorne is that crime lord that Batman took down right?” Barbara asked with a bit of excitement.

“Hey, we were the ones who brought him in.” Bullock told her as he pointed his half-finished donuts in her direction.

“Batman was the one who knocked them out, and I bet he was the one who called you guys in.” Barbara said as she crossed her arms.

It took all of Edward’s willpower to not snort an amusement upon hearing that. Technically he was the one who called the cops. The two glared at each other and it looked like neither one would give an inch. Edward just watched on as he plugged the flash drive into his laptop. 

Apparently Bullock decided to give in first because he just growled out “I’m not arguing about this with a nine year old.” 

Barbara grumbled something under her breath, but Edward didn’t catch what she said. 

“Anyway, you shouldn’t look up to that freak. He’s a criminal.” Bullock said.

“A criminal that takes down thugs, helped take down two crime lords, and took the Joker down twice.” Barbara pointed out.

“It’s his fault the Joker and his assassins were even here in the first place.” Bullock argued. “That guy causes more trouble than he’s worth.” 

He looked over at Gordon and Edward and said “Right guys?”

“I don’t know…” Gordon said slowly.

“Oh come on Gordon. Since when have you been on team Batman?” Bullock asked.

“I don’t know he does some good things. He brought in the escaped convicts from Blackgate, he hasn’t killed anyone, and while the assassins were brought here to bring him down Batman didn’t hide and let them cause chaos in the street. He took care of them.” Gordon said slowly.

It was almost like he couldn’t believe what he was saying, but was sort of happy to be saying it anyway. Barbara looked rather thrilled with the fact that her dad was coming around to her train of thought when it came to Batman. Meanwhile, Bullock looked like Gordon had just stabbed him in the back.

Bullock looked over at Edward and said “At least you agree with me right Edward?”

“Actually, I’m with Gordon on this.” Edward said slowly.

Bullock look devastated while Gordon and Barbara just looked surprised.

“Really? Just a couple of days ago you were ranting that Batman was just a no good idiotic thug looking for glory.” Gordon said in surprise.

“Yes, well I gave it some thought and decided that maybe there is more to him then I was originally giving him credit for.” Edward said. “The man must have some intelligence if he was able to take out all of those assassins. Also, as you said he could have stayed hidden during the one night, but instead he took went out to take of the guy who was trying to kill him.”

“You are all betraying me.” Bullock muttered. 

“Just eat your donuts and everything will be fine.” Edward said while he smirked.

Bullock grumbled a little bit, but he did return to eating his donuts.

“Although, now that we are talking about Batman I have to wonder about something that concerns him.” Gordon said slowly. 

“What about him?” Barbara asked. 

Gordon looked over at his daughter and was quiet for a few seconds before he shrugged and said “Well, it’s not him but his new companion that concerns me.”

Edward perked up a bit upon hearing that. They were talking about him now.

“The riddle asking robot guy?” Bullock asked.

“Robot?” Edward and Barbara asked at the exact same time. 

They both glanced over at each other before they snapped their attention back over to Bullock.

Bullock just shrugged as he said “I don’t know. All the dirtbags that we brought in that heard the Bat’s friend said he sounded like a robot that was on the fritz. He would ask some bat themed riddle and then a minute later Batman would show up and knock them out.”

“They get a name?” Barbara asked. 

“Rupert Thorne was blubbering that he took the name Riddler, but he’s the only one saying that so who knows how true it is.” Bullock said as he gave a slight shrug of his shoulders. “Not that it matters. If he’s working with the Bat then he’s just another no good lousy criminal.” 

Edward frowned a bit upon hearing that and he could feel a bit of anger start to boil to the surface, but Edward tried his best to will that away. Bullock was a donut obsessed idiot and what he said didn’t matter in the slightest. That helped to calm Edward down a bit, but he still felt a little annoyed. Edward couldn’t help but wonder if Batman felt that annoyance whenever someone bad mouthed him.

Edward was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Gordon say “At any rate we don’t have much info on him so we can’t really say anything about him or pass any real judgment about him.”

Barbara let out a small hum of understanding before she asked “Are you guys almost done for the night?” 

“We still have three hours to go, but for now we shouldn’t have to rush off to take care of anything.” Gordon said with a slight smile. 

“Nothing big is going on in the city anyway. The only big thing going on is that reward ceremony for Ferris Boyle at Wayne Manor, and he lives in the outskirts of the city so they shouldn’t have any trouble.” Bullock said.

“Don’t jinx us.” Gordon muttered. 

Bullock shrugged apparently unconcerned about possibly jinxing themselves.

“Can we watch the ball drop in Times Square on TV?” Barbara asked. 

“Go ahead.” Gordon said as he turned his attention down to his paper work.

He shoved a few papers toward Bullock, and while the man didn’t seem thrilled at going through paper work he went to work. Barbara grabs the remote off of the table and turned the TV on. After flipping through a few channels Barbara found the one that she wanted and placed the remote down on the table. Edward glanced at the TV before he looked at the people around him. 

_‘Heck of a New Year’s Eve.’_ Edward thought with a bit of sarcasm. 

He was spending his New Year’s Eve at work with two workers that he got along with alright and his coworker’s kid. Ah well, it was better than being alone.

 _‘I wonder what Batman is doing for New Year’s Eve?’_ Edward thought as he finally started to work on the flash drive.

Strangely the flash drive wasn’t encrypted. Usually they were so the fact that this one wasn't was surprising. Although, if it was not encrypted then that probably meant that the information on the flash drive wasn't considered very important. Upon opening the flash drive Edward was greeted with a list of files. It was pretty typical looking list and Edward started to read the list of files.

 **Supply list**

**List of our men that are currently arrested**

**Important! List of people ordered to go with Mister Freeze**

“Mister Freeze?” Edward couldn’t help but say out loud in confusion. 

Bullock looked just as confused as Edward felt when he said “Mister Freeze? That a refrigerator company or something?”

“I don’t kn-“ Edward started to say only to be cut off when the intercom system came on.

“We have a situation at North Gotham. I repeat we have a situation at North Gotham. Riots are breaking out are believed to be connected with the several Anarky rioter leaders. All officers on duty are ordered to report to meeting room twenty-five to receive dispatch orders.”

Bullock cursed softly under his breath as he scrambled to his feet and rushed out of the room. 

Gordon shot up to his feet and said “Barbara, take my papers to my office and stay in there for me OK?” 

Barbara nodded before she said “Be careful.” 

“I will be.” Gordon said before he too disappeared out of the room. 

Edward stood up, picked up his laptop, and started to make his way out of the room.

“I’m going to be in my office.” Edward called out to Barbara before walking out the door.

The second he was out of the break room you picked up is pace so that he was running down the hall. Edward had no idea what Batman was doing right now, but for Ed’s sake he hoped that he would be able to contact him because these sudden riots sounded like something that Batman needed to investigate…..

\----------------------------------------------------------

This year officially sucked. That was all that Bruce could think of as he hastily put on the Batsuit. With the Calendar Man safely in jail he thought he could relax a little this New Year’s Eve. Of course he couldn’t do that. The second he relaxes just a bit some guy in a mechanical suit comes breaking into his house yelling for Ferris Boyle while turning everyone near him into human popsicles. As if that wasn’t enough apparently the army of thugs that followed him into the manor belonged to Penguin.

Bruce almost wanted to sigh in frustration, but he kept himself from doing that. He didn’t have time to complain about anything. Right now he had to deal with the situation before the ice man and his gang of thugs killed anyone. The second that Batsuit was on and Bruce was officially Batman he noticed someone trying to contact him through the comlink. 

The now dressed Batman turned the link on and said “Riddler.”

“There are at least seven major riots happening in North Gotham and I can promise you it’s probably gang related.”

It took everything Batman had to not sigh upon hearing that. Of course there was a riot happening in Gotham right now of all times. 

As he started to make his way out of the Batcave he said “I’m a little busy at the Wayne Manor now. The place is being attacked by an army of Penguin thugs and a guy with a freeze gun.”

“What are you doing at Wayne….” Riddler started to ask only to slowly come to a halt.

“Did you say freeze gun?” Riddler asked in disbelief.

“That’s what I said.” Batman confirmed as he took the elevator up to the secret tunnel that was in Wayne Manor.

Riddler was quite for a moment before he asked “Okay this might seem like a crazy question here, but does your ice man happen to go by the name of Mister Freeze?”

Batman blinked a few times in surprise upon hearing that. He had heard some of the thugs talk about the man with the freeze gun, and they did indeed call the man Mister Freeze.

When the elevator reached its destination Batman stepped out and said “That is indeed his name. How did you know that?” 

“I got my hands on some digital files that the police got from a raid of one of the so called Anarky rioter leader’s hideouts, and one of those files happens to have the name Mister Freeze attached to it.” Riddler explained.

“Can you go through the files and see if you can’t find some info that I can use?” Batman asked.

“I’ll get right on it, but don’t hold your breath for anything earth shaking. Most of the stuff I have here just seem to be a list of supplies.” Riddler said. 

Batman was about to respond, but before he could utter a word the lights went out. Batman quickly used his comlink to get in touch with his butler.

“Alfred what happened to the power?” Batman asked. 

“Sir, you must hurry. Penguin’s men are setting the manor ablaze. I’ve managed to get most of the guests into the east and south wings but-“ Alfred started to say only to be cut off by someone’s yelling. 

“Hey! It’s the butler!” Batman was barely able to hear over his comlink.

Batman’s heart almost froze in his chest when he heard comlink on Alfred’s end suddenly fall dead silent.

“Alfred? Alfred!” Batman yelled over the comlink. 

Alfred didn’t reply. Batman cursed under his breath as he ran down the tunnel. 

“Riddler!” Batman yelled over his comlink.

“What? Why are you yelling?” Riddler asked in confusion. 

“The manor has a few security cameras set up in it. I need you to hack into them and tell me if the Wayne butler is alright.” Batman ordered.

“The electricity has gone off, but the manor has backup generators that can be turned on remotely. Hack into the systems and do so.”

“My you certainly know a lot about Wayne Manor. I wonder why you know so much?” Riddler said while somehow sounding somewhat smug.

“Riddler, just do what I asked!” Batman snapped. 

He did not have the time nor the patience to deal with Riddler’s unsubtle hinting that he was figuring out who Batman was.

“Alright, don’t chomp my head off. I’ll do what you asked.” Riddler said with an annoyed sigh. 

Batman just ignored him in favor of opening the passageway door that lead into the wine cellar. Upon getting into the wine cellar he could see the fire that Alfred was talking about. The flames were slowly consuming the wooden furniture that set up in the area, and the gate that lead into the main chamber of the wine cellar was already surrounded by fire. Batman quickly raced over to the vent grate and ripped it off its hinges before he slipped inside. The gate may have been blocked, but that didn’t mean his way of getting out of here was. 

“It must been more than one guy.” Batman heard one of Penguin’s men say. 

They were obviously discussing the knocked out men that Batman had knocked out his first time went through here. 

“Yeah, but who? No way the cops are here. They’re busy fightin’ off protesters in North Gotham.”

Batman remembered Riddler saying something about riots. This had been very well timed. The riots had been carefully planned to happen when this Mister Freeze guy attacked the manor so that the police would be too busy to cause any issues for Mister Freeze and his small army of thugs. Batman would have thought more about the riots, but he could do that later. Right now all that mattered was getting to Alfred and making sure he was alright. He wasn’t going to lose the only family he had left. Not tonight. 

When Batman reached the end of the vent tunnel he shot out of it like a speeding bullet and slammed the nearest thug’s face into the ground. He glances up only to see that the men had already set to work on setting fire to some of the things in the area. A few boxes burned in a corner while a few broken bottles of various alcohol drinks litter the floor. The men stand there and stare dumbly at Batman as he slowly rises from his crouched position. A few of the men had alcohol bottles in their hands, and Batman couldn’t help but notice that a few had decided to help themselves to his liquor rather than just burn it all.

One of the men finally decides to react as he smashes the half full bottle of Screaming Eagle Cabernet against the wall. The shattered glass falls to the ground and the sound of liquid hitting the stone floor can barely be heard over the crackling fire. The man holds up his new weapon and scowls at Batman.

“You are going to get it now Bat fr-“ The man starts to say only to be cut off when Batman launches himself at him and punches him in the jaw.

A symphony of shattering glass can be heard all throughout the room which tells Batman that the other men who had been holding bottles have broken them so that the sharp glass could be used as makeshift weapons. He ignores it and just continues to punch the guy whose jaw he had most likely broke. The man goes down after five more hits, but Batman gets no time to celebrate this because he feels something cut his exposed cheek. He quickly rolls away and brushes his hand over the cut once he’s out of the way. There’s no glass stuck in it and it’s not bleeding badly so he can ignore it. He glances over at the man who caused the cut just in time to see the man rush at him with the bottle. Batman smoothly doges the swings, and as he avoids the swings he mentally thinks of which way he needs to go.

_Move left._

_Move right._

_Move left._

_Move right._

_His guard is down. Punch him._

Batman uppercuts the man and the thug drops the bottle and falls to the ground. The rest of the men go down easily, and as Batman watches the last man fall to the ground like a sack of potatoes he hears Riddler’s voice.

“Alright I got good news and bad news.”

“What’s the good news?” Batman asks as he speeds down the hall.

“The butler is alive and currently in the library with a few of the party goers and he is talking to a few of Penguin’s idiotic men. I can’t hear what is being said, but I think he is trying to distract them.” Riddler says.

Batman doesn’t dare slow down or relax after hearing that, but this info does give him a bit of peace of mind. Alfred was still alive. Alfred was still OK. Still, as Batman raced down the halls and spotted the paintings of his ancestors burn and turn into ash he was all too aware of what would happen to Alfred if he didn’t hurry. 

“What’s the bad news?”

“Are you aware of the fact that Penguin’s men are trying to turn Wayne Manor into one giant fireplace?” Riddler asked.

“I am aware.” Batman says flatly. 

“I figured you would be. It isn’t pretty. The Wayne Manor is filled with priceless old books and many rare first editions and these idiots are turning it all into kindling.” Riddler said with a loud sigh. “Seeing all of these books go up in flames is enough to make a historian and lover of books cry.”

Batman didn’t respond to that. He just reached the end of the tunnel and quickly climbed the ladder that would lead him out of the wine cellar. The door to the cellar was located in a side room of the library on the top floor so the second he opened the hatch of the wine cellar he heard Alfred’s voice. 

“That book was over twelve hundred years old.”

Batman hurried out of the side room and looked down at ground floor. There in the very center of the room was Alfred. Vicki Vale was near him kneeling down toward the ground with her hands over her head. A few of the party goers who had been able to escape from the first wave of attackers were gathered around Alfred staring fearfully at the men patrolling the area. A few of the men were burning books and tossing ripped pages around like it was confetti. One lone man was standing near Alfred with a gun in hand. The gun wasn’t pointed at Alfred, but at any second the man could shoot Alfred. Alfred just glared at the man that was looking down at him as if the man didn’t have a gun in hand. 

“Dammit Alfred.” Batman grumbled under his breath as he used his hook shot to yank himself up to a wooden perch that was hanging overhead.

“You are full of it old man. There’s no way that was worth any amount of money.” The man who was standing next to Alfred said.

“Fine, keep your silly jade statue then, and I’m sure your employer will enjoy the hundreds of dollars it will gamer on the blackmarket.” Alfred said in frustration.

A man who was standing nearby and holding the jade statue that Alfred had mentioned said “Dude, is he serious? Are we pretty much burning stuff that we could sell for thousands of dollars right now?”

“Don’t listen to him Jim he’s just trying to stop us from stealing the real expensive stuff.” The guy with the gun yelled. 

The sad fact was that Alfred wasn’t lying. A few of the books that they were burning were worth thousands. Riddler was right when he said that a few historians and book lovers would be devastated once they learn that pretty much the whole Wayne family book collection went up in flame. Batman shook his head to rid himself of his thoughts and started to tune out the talking in favor of focusing on the task at hand. He needed to defeat Penguin’s men and get Alfred and the others to safety.

A man was walking by below him so Batman used his Batclaw to lower himself down so that he could grab the man and yank him up to the wooden perch. The man let out a harsh scream as he was yanked up into the air. Batman wrapped a rope around his ankle, attached the other end of the rope to the wooden perch, and shot the man a harsh glare before he let him drop. The man dangled helplessly from the rope, and while he was terrified he was unharmed. As the man screamed his head off Batman quickly launched himself over to another wooden perch.

“Billy?! Billy what’s wrong?!” Jim shouted as he raced over to where Billy was hanging. 

“Bat! The Bat!” Billy was able to babble out. 

He sounded almost hysterical, and apparently yelling Bat was all he could do.

“Bat? Wayne has a bat infestation here?” One of the men with bright red hair asked. 

“No you idiot he’s saying that Batman is here!” The man standing near Alfred shouted. 

“What is Batman doing here?!” Jim shouted out.

“I don’t know just look for him!” The man that was near Alfred shouted at him.

Vicki Vale looked up upon hearing that and looked up. After a few seconds of searching she spotted Batman and she openly stared at him for a few seconds. Batman just held a single finger up to his lips to signal that she should be quite and not give him away. Luckily, she didn’t nod to confirm that she understood. She just looked away so that no one would see her staring at him. 

Once Vicki was no longer looking at him he pulled out his remote claw. There were a few metal decorations that looked like gargoyles hung up around the room. They were too small to be used for much, but the remote claw could attach a line to it and yank up any man that Batman attached the other part of the hook line to another person. They would be safely taken out of the fight and then all he would have to do is deal with the last man standing near Alfred. A few quick shots of the remote claw caused the two men that he had been aiming at to be yanked up into the air. 

The gun that the one man had been holding feel from his grip and clattered to the ground while the jade statue that the thug named Jim had been holding fell to the ground with a loud thunk. They started screaming in terror as they hung from the ropes by their ankles while the man standing next to Alfred looked officially spooked now. He kept glancing around him like he expected Batman to come jumping out of the swirling fire that danced around them and kill him.

“C-come on out Batman! I’m not afraid of you!” The man yelled out, but the slight shaking in his voice told Batman that he was scared out of his mind.

Batman decided to answer his challenge by gliding toward the man and kicking him in the face. One of the party goers let out a surprised yell when the man went down and Batman proceeded to slam his head repeatedly down on the ground. Once the man had passed out he stood up and looked at the small group of party goers. They seemed a little weary of him, but for the most part they were slightly more relaxed now that the gunmen had been knocked out. It probably helped that the guys that Batman had suspended with rope were finally done screaming since they had passed out.

“We need to get out of here.” Alfred said. “If we can get out to the main hall we should be alright, but the door is blocked by the Wayne family crest."

A glance at the door showed that the family crest was indeed blocking the way. It used to be on a stand near the door, but Penguin’s men must have smashed the stand causing the large family crest to fall and block the way. How Penguin’s men were planning on escaping once they set fire to enough stuff was anyone’s guess. Once they really got the fire going there would be no time left to move the crest out of the way. 

Batman mentally shrugged before he walked over to the crest and started to pull it out of the way. It took a while, but he was able to push it out of the way. He ended up pushing a bit too hard because it went crashing into the wall which caused a large crack to form right down the middle of the family crest. Batman winched a bit at this, but quickly shook it off. It could be repaired, and even if it couldn’t be fixed a new one could be made. 

Batman quickly flung the doors open before he looked back and yelled “Come on people let’s move!” 

The people didn’t hesitate to rush into the safe main hall. Once everyone was threw the door Batman slipped inside. 

As he closed the door behind him he heard Vicki say “That was amazing! You just picked those goons apart!” 

When the door clicked close Batman looked at the people gathered around him only to see that they all seemed to be a bit more relaxed now. Now that it was pretty clear that Batman was indeed there to help them they were not as on edge around him.

“After rescuing us like that you officially have my support Batman.” A man said with a slight smile.

Batman nodded before he looked around the room and asked “Is everyone alright?” 

A few people nodded, but it was Alfred who said “A few of us are shaken, but for the most part we are all alright.” 

Batman relaxed just a tad upon hearing that. He felt a tiny bit bad about only being truly concerned about Alfred, but after almost losing him on Christmas Eve he was still a bit on high alert about Alfred’s safety.

“We need to call the police. They can help with all of this can’t they?” A woman in a blue dress smudged with ash.

“Sorry, but I don’t think the police will be helping you with this anytime soon.”

**_Helping you, helping you, helping you….._ **

The electronic repeating alerted Batman to the fact that Riddler must have connected to the lone monitor that was in the hall. The monitor had been there to display a map of the house ground floor for the guests to use to use to get around, but it seemed that Riddler had decided to use it for something else. Batman spun around and sure enough the shadowy figure of the Riddler was on the screen. A few of the lights that were in the room also flickered on so it seemed that Riddler had been able to get the backup generator on. A few people looked at the screen with wide eyes while others just looked unsure of how to react. 

“Who are you?” Vicki asks without fear.

Instead of answering the question the Riddler just had to do what his namesake suggested.

“Riddle me this, what do you call a person who asks riddles?”

There was a bit murmuring among the people gathered in the room, and before Batman could tell Riddler to knock it off and get back to the task on Vicki said “I don’t know a Riddler?”

“Correct! Very good Miss Vale you got it right.” Riddler said.

“Who are you?” Vicki asked.

“I am Batman’s partner in fighting crime.” Riddler said sounding as proud as ever. 

Everyone looked over at Batman and gave him a look that seemed to say _‘Well, is he?’_

“Riddler what have you found out?” Batman asked all while ignoring the question that everyone else was silently asking. 

“Not much. The files that I have my hands on were meant to be seen by the low level grunts so there is no real important information in it. I got a list of everyone currently torching the Wayne Manor so that’s something I guess.” Riddler said all while sounding rather disappointed that the list of names of low level grunts was all he had.

Well, that was unfortunate. Still, Batman was hoping that Riddler had uncovered something that could be of use to him. The list might not seem like much, but at this point any info was good info.

Batman was about to ask another question, but before he could even open his mouth to say a word Vicki asked “Why can’t the cops come and deal with this?” 

“Riots have broken out over North Gotham and almost all of the cops have been sent out to deal with it.” Riddler answered. “There are a few cops at the station, but not enough to deal with all of the people at Wayne Manor.” 

A few people looked a little distressed upon hearing that, but no one dared to voice their fears out loud. 

Vicki frowned and said “Rather convenient that the riots happen right when the attack on Wayne Manor happens.”

“The one who ordered the attack on the manor set the riots up to keep the police busy.” Riddler informed her.

“Oh my god what did Ferris Boyle do to tick these guys off so much!?” A man that was standing near the model of Gotham City cried out.

“Ferris Boyle?” Riddler asked in confusion with some electronic stuttering causing the f of Ferris’ name to be repeated about seven times.

“Mister Freeze seemed very eager to get his hands on Ferris Boyle.” Batman explained.

“Hmmm, that’s interesting. I’m guessing Ferris did something to tick this Mister Freeze fellow off. I can check his company’s records and see if I can’t find someone who might fit the description of this Mister Freeze fellow. This anger toward Ferris is probably over something mundane like getting fired.” Riddler said with a sigh.

“Keep me posted if you find anything out.” Batman ordered.

“You got it.” Riddler said.

Batman was about to ask Riddler if he knew anything else, but the woman that was standing near the door that led out to the hall that would take you right to the ballroom quickly hissed out that everyone should be quite. She had her ear pressed up against the door and she seemed to be concentrating on trying to hear something.

“I think I hear Ferris Boyle in there!” The woman said. 

She looked very concerned and she quickly pushed herself away from the door and cried out “I.. I think they are going to kill him!”

“Riddler can you see into the hall?” Batman immediately asked.

“No, the cameras in there are offline.” Riddler said in frustration. 

_‘Of course they are.’_ Batman thought with a sigh.

He should probably hurry and rescue Ferris, but first he needed to know that these people could get to safety before he rushed off to do anything.

“Riddler can you guide the party goers to safety?” Batman asked. 

“Depends. Does anyone have a phone with a good internet connection?” Riddler asked. 

“I do.” Alfred said as he pulled his phone out of his pocket and held it up. 

“Excellent! We are in business then.” Riddler said cheerfully. “I’ll hack into your phone so that I can stay in contact with you. With the help of the security cameras I should be able to see which rooms are clear and which areas you should avoid.”

The people in the room looked hopeful upon hearing that, and even Batman felt a bit of relief upon hearing that. Alfred knew the mansion like the back of his hand so he could take advantage of the secret corridors and out of the way rooms to get everyone out of here. With Edward letting Alfred know when danger was coming his way and acting like the butler’s extra pair of eyes Batman could be more or less assured that Alfred and the party goers following him wouldn’t end up in the hands of Penguin’s goons again. 

However, before he left he looked over at Alfred and asked “Is there a sprinkler system in the manor?” 

Of course there was a sprinkler system in the manor, but asking that question was Batman’s subtle way of asking Alfred to get the power to the sprinkler system online and turn it on before the whole manor was turned into a burnt out empty shell of a building. 

Luckily, Alfred picked up on what he was trying to say because Alfred nodded slightly before he said “Once I restore power to the sprinkler system I’ll be able to deal with the fire.” 

“Great, that means I have to make sure he gets to the sprinkler systems safely don’t I?” Riddler asked with a bit of annoyance. “I’ll never get to check Ferris’ records at this rate.”

“Just lead him Riddler. I’m counting on you.” Batman said as he made his way toward the door that would take him to Ferris.

The ‘I’m counting on you’ bit captured Riddler’s interest, and it seemed to be enough to get him to stop complaining.

“Don’t worry your little head over Wayne’s party guests. I promise you that I’ll keep them from getting into any trouble.” Riddler said before he finally shut the monitor that he had hacked into off.

Batman says nothing he just takes in a deep breath before he opens the door and steps out into the hall so that he could rescue Ferris Boyle before it was too late…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Info time!
> 
> Barbara’s age: I know that it the games Barbara was already a teenager by the time that Origins happened, but I decided to make her younger in this fanfic. I also decided to make Dick, Tim, and Jason younger in this story as well. I did this mostly because I want to give each Robin time to live and grow up with Edward and Bruce as their adopted parents and really give them time to bond. I also wanted to keep Barbara around the same age as all of the Robins which is why she got the changed age.


	4. It's going to be a long night

Upon entering the hall Bruce was met with the sight of a burning Christmas tree and Ferris yelling.

“You don’t have to do this!” Ferris yelled out in a panic. 

“Shut up!” Someone yelled. 

Batman turned his head just in time to spot someone punch Ferris right in the face. A thug was holding Ferris in place so that his friend could punch Ferris without any issues. A broken pillar was in between Batman and the Penguin henchmen which partially obscured Batman from anyone’s view. The fact that the thugs seemed more interested focusing their attention on their new human punching bag also helped keep them from noticing the Bat’s presence. Batman frowned as he pulled a batarang out of his belt and chucked it at the head of the guy who was holding Ferris in place.

The batarang struck its target and the man let Ferris go while he stumbled back and clamped his hand over the bruise that was now forming on his temple. Ferris fell to the floor and the second he hit the ground he crawled away from his assailants while Batman sprang to action. It didn’t take long for Batman to take them out and once the two men had been knocked out Batman turned to look at Ferris. The man stared up at him with wide eyes his mouth slowly opens in surprise, but he doesn’t utter a sound. He sits there silently for a moment almost as if he was afraid to say anything to Batman.

However, after taking in a shaky breath he managed to say “I-I heard about you.” 

“We need to get you out of here.” Batman says in response. 

He takes three steps toward Ferris before he is literally frozen in place. The cold chill of the ice that now encased his body hit Batman hard. After being sounded by the heat of the fire for most of the night getting suddenly hit with a blast of ice was enough to cause anyone to be thrown off of their grove. While his body is encased in ice his head is still free. Batman turns his head and looks down the hall and sure enough Mister Freeze was there. The man seems to examine Batman for a moment as he slowly lowers his ice gun, but his gaze instantly snaps over to Ferris when Ferris crawls backwards a few inches. Mister Freeze scowled at Ferris and his heavy footsteps echoed down the hall as he stomped up to the gray haired man.

“I have no quarrel with you.” Mister Freeze tells Batman. 

“Then you crashed the wrong party.” Batman says as he struggles against his icy bonds. 

The surrounding fire is already starting to melt the ice and Batman is able to struggle a bit in his icy cage. He can struggle just enough that he knows he can break the ice, but as he watches Mister Freeze grabs the man by his shoulders and yanks him to his feet Batman already knows that he won’t be able to break out of the ice before Mister Freeze either takes Ferris away somewhere or kills him. 

“Freeze?! What do you want with me?!” Ferris cries out. 

The man does not stutter, but the fear that is in his voice is loudly evident. 

“I just need a moment of your time.” Mister Freeze growls out. 

The ice gun toting man looks and sounds like he would rather stab Ferris in the heart with a rusty icepick then spend any amount of time talking to Ferris. Mister Freeze shoves Ferris down the hall toward the ballroom and Ferris starts walking. Ferris looks back only once to give Batman a rather fearful look before he finally turns the corner and disappears out of sight along with Mister Freeze. Batman was finally able to break out of the ice right when three more Penguin thugs appeared. 

There was really no denying who these thugs belonged to. All three of the thugs were wearing armbands that had Penguin’s symbol on them. One of them was holding escrima sticks that were crackling with electricity. They said nothing to Batman when they saw him. They didn’t yell threats nor did they look even slightly scared by his presence. They just stared at him seriously as they all took a couple of steps toward him. Batman just brought out his hook shot and shot it at the man holding the escrima sticks. The second the hook latched onto the man’s coat Batman yanked him forward. The men let out a surprised yelp, but he was quickly silenced when he got close to Batman and was slammed into the ground. 

One of the men immediately dived forward in an attempt to grab the weapon that the other guy had dropped when he was knocked out, but Batman slammed his foot down onto his hand before he could even grab the weapon. The man looked like he wanted to scream. That he wanted to yell out his pain loud enough for everyone in the manor to hear him. Yet, he kept his mouth clamped shut as he tried to desperately pull his hand out from under Batman’s foot. The fact that he was able to keep himself from yelling was rather impressive. Batman didn’t get to dwell on that thought for long because the feeling of someone punching him in the jaw caused him to stumble back. Batman scowled a bit as he looked at his assailant.

 _‘Focus Bruce.’_ Batman told himself. _‘Don’t get lost in thought. If you don’t pay attention you could get knocked out and that would be the end of you and Ferris.’_

His jaw ached a little, but it didn’t matter. It would stop hurting eventually and Batman didn’t have time to dwell on it. He quickly knocked the men out before he raced down the hall. He turned the corner just in time to see the door to the ballroom get frozen over. He looked up at the nearby balcony only to see a man carrying a cryogenic weapon. The man didn’t notice Batman and once he was done creating a manmade iceberg in front of door to the ballroom he turned and ran out of sight.

_‘It looks like Freeze isn’t the only one with a cryogenic weapon.’_ Batman thought as he used his hook shot to pull himself up to the balcony above.

The main door to the ballroom may have been blocked, but there were other ways to get to the ballroom. As he ran down the hall the sound of a door opening an slamming shut echoed down the hall. No one was in the hall luckily so no one stopped Batman from getting to the door that leads to the balcony that was in the ballroom. Upon stepping out into the balcony he saw the man that had frozen the main ballroom door jump down to the floor below. Overhead the skylight had been smashed and a helicopter turned and quickly flew away.

 _‘There go Mister Freeze and Ferris.’_ Batman thought with a frown. 

He took a few steps forward and looked down at the ground floor. The whole ballroom looked like some sort of nightmarish winter wonderland. It was gently snowing and the snow had fallen in threw the broken skylight and created a thing sheet of snow on almost everything. Giant pillars of ice clung to the walls, and standing in a few areas of the ballroom were the people who had been unfortunate enough to be frozen. Their faces were frozen in terror, and a few people had been frozen while they had been trying to run for their lives. The piano player had been frozen while he was sitting at the piano his fingers still resting on the piano keys. It was like an icy version of Pompeii.

Standing in the middle of the ball room were a small group of Penguin’s men looking around at the frozen party guests like they were nothing more than strange statues in a chilly art gallery. Of course the man with the cryogenic weapon was down there. He was wearing bright red goggles that glowed in the dim lighting of the area, and the fact that he was covered from head to toe made him look a bit like a slasher villain from a B list horror movie.

 _‘One of the thugs must know where the helicopter is going.’_ Batman thought with a sigh.

He really wasn’t looking forward to going up against the guy with the cryogenic weapon. As Batman jumped down to the ground floor he couldn’t help but hope that Riddler and Alfred were having an easier time dealing with all of this then he was… 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Unless you want to become an extra crispy butler I wouldn’t suggest going in there.” 

_**Wouldn’t suggest it, wouldn’t suggest it, wouldn’t suggest it….** _

Alfred sighed upon hearing Riddler’s warning. Tonight was turning out to be a rather hard night. The stuttered warning seems to cause the small party of people to cringe and grow just a bit more nervous. Alfred didn’t feel nervous, but he was annoyed with the whole situation. There was a secret passage in that room that they could use to get a major shortcut out to the parking lot. However, since the room had apparently been turned into a raging inferno there was no way that they could take advantage of the shortcut. They were not screwed since there were still plenty of ways to get out of the manor, but it was inconvenient. 

Alfred glanced back at the people gathered around him. Everyone looked tired, and stressed out. Fancy suits were smudged with soot, makeup was smudged by fearful tears, and a few people had bruises decorating their skin. They looked like they had just escaped from a natural disaster. Alfred supposed that in some ways they kind of did. However, this disaster wasn’t natural and they were not out of the fire yet. 

Everyone looked weary and scared. They glanced around the halls like they were expecting Penguin thugs to appear at any second. A few stood close to each other as if just being near someone would somehow keep them safe. They all stuck close to Alfred, but the butler had to admit that at times it felt like he was trying to lead a bunch of skittish children around with the help of a somewhat sarcastic robot. 

Alfred glanced down at the phone in his hand at the thought of his robotic voice guide. For the most part Riddler had been pretty professional about the thing. He gave short answers and replies to Alfred when the old butler told him which way he was going or when he asked if it was safe to go into a room. He was professional for the most part, but sometimes he would say something that made Alfred wish he would have phrased what he said differently. This wasn’t the first time Riddler had commented on them becoming extra crispy. Every time he did that everyone got just a bit more spooked. They needed some good news. 

“Are there any ruffians near us?” Alfred finally asked as he turned from the door and continued making his way down the hall.

A few people tensed up at the thought of having to deal with more Penguin goons. Alfred was praying to whoever was listening that Bruce had dealt with all of the thugs already. 

“Most have left already, and the ones who have not are currently either knocked out or getting their teeth punched out by our favorite Bat.” Riddler answered. 

A few people looked relived upon hearing that, and even Alfred felt relived. It was good to know that they didn’t have to worry about being jumped by any more thugs. 

"So that means that Ferris is saved, right?” A woman asked hopefully.

“I wouldn’t get excited yet. Mister Freeze seems to have left in a helicopter with Ferris.” Riddler said.

“Oh God what are they going to do with him?” A man asked with worry in his voice.

“Kill him most likely.” Riddler said nonchalantly.

**_Kill him, kill him, kill him, kill him…._ **

Of course Riddler’s stuttering voice disguise had to repeat the kill bit over and over again. Everyone started to look worried again, and Alfred didn’t know if he should sigh or slam his head against the wall in frustration. 

“Did you have to tell them that part?” Alfred asked.

“What did you want me to lie to them?” Riddler asked sounding a tiny bit insulted that Alfred had even suggested it. “I don’t lie if I can help it.” 

Riddler said that last bit so firmly that Alfred couldn’t help but wonder if there was a history there. He wanted to ask, but now really wasn’t the time. That and Riddler wouldn’t spill his secrets to a random butler. The thought is dropped when Alfred finally reaches a door that led into a storage room.

“Is it safe to go in here?” Alfred asked.

Alfred really hoped it was safe. If these people had to stay in Wayne Manor under these conditions for much longer he was sure that a few of them would have panic induced breakdowns. The fact that they made it this long without crying in terror and yelling that they were doomed was a miracle.

“It’s safe don’t worry.” Riddler assured him. 

Alfred thanked his lucky stars upon hearing that and quickly opened the door. The door belonged to a room that was used to store things used for the gardens. However, the most important thing about this room was the fact that it had a door that led out into the back gardens. Alfred led the people into the storage room and carefully made his way through the room. The place was a disaster zone that really needed to be cleaned up. 

Normally Alfred would be ashamed to lead anyone through such a messy room like this, but with the way tonight was going he couldn’t bring himself to care. He was pretty sure that the scared party guests didn’t care much either. The second that Alfred unlocked the door and opened it the people quickly sprang outside. It was like watching a bunch of wild animal’s race out of a cage. They raced off toward their cars like a pack of scared gazelles running from a hungry lion. 

Alfred watched them go for a moment, but he was snapped out of it when he heard Riddler say “They didn’t exactly waste any time in running for the hills.”

“Can you blame them? After everything that happened I can’t blame them for not wanting to stay in the manor any longer then they have to.” Alfred asked as he closed his eyes and leaned back against the doorframe.

“No, I can’t blame them.” Riddler said slowly. “Still, they are lucky that there were not any Penguin guards outside because if there had been they would have been filled with lead within a matter of seconds.”

 _‘Well, isn’t that a pleasant mental image.’_ Alfred thought with a frown. 

It wasn’t an idea that Alfred liked to ponder for any amount of time, but like it or not Riddler did have a point. If there had been guards outside all of those people who had rushed outside without a second thought would have been killed pretty quick. They were fine with the idea of putting them in the library and letting them burn up along with the Wayne family book collection. If Penguin’s men were fine with burning them alive then they would have been fine will killing them all with guns. Alfred tried to shake those rather morbid thoughts away. There were no guards outside and everyone go to their cars just fine so there was no reason to dwell on the what-ifs. 

It was silent for a moment before Riddler tentatively asked “Are you going to be OK getting to the sprinkler system?” 

Alfred was a little surprised that Riddler had asked. He actually sounded a bit concerned about Alfred’s safety. After spending so much time listening to Riddler say stuff like extra crispy butler hearing the Riddler’s touch of concern in his voice was a little surprising. Yet, it was also definitely appreciated.

“I shall be fine. If Batman has taken out the thugs then I don’t need to worry about being attacked again.” Alfred assured him.

“Alright, I called the police and they should be sending some cops to take care of the men that Batman has knocked out. A fire crew should be coming too so they can take care of what damage the sprinklers can’t handle.” Riddler said. 

“Thank you Riddler for helping me navigate the manor and for calling for help.” Alfred said with a slight smile on his face.

“Y-you're welcome.” Riddler said all while sounding a bit surprised that Alfred even bothered to thank him.

Alfred wasn’t able to comment on it because Riddler quickly said “Well, I better go. Batman needs my help if he wants to find Mister Freeze. He’s hopeless without my help after all.” 

The green question mark symbol that had been on his phone screen disappeared only to be replaced with the generic lock screen wallpaper that Alfred had left his phone on. Alfred stared at his phone for a moment before he rolled his eyes and sighed.

_‘It’s nice to see that I was right about him being a bit full of himself.’_ Alfred thought with a bit of sarcasm.

After resting for a moment Alfred finally pushed himself off of the doorframe and started to make his way to where the sprinkler system was. The manor was still burning, and Alfred wasn’t going to let the Wayne family home be turned into ash….

\-----------------------------------------------------

“So I got good news and bad news.”

Batman pauses on the fire escape that he was standing on upon hearing the Riddler say that. Batman was in South Gotham now and he was looking for someone who could hopefully lead him to Mister Freeze. The thugs that had been left behind at Wayne Manor didn’t know where the man of ice was going, but they did know where one of Penguin’s dealers was handing out Mister Freeze’s cryogenic weapons like they were candy. 

They were meeting up in Gotham South and once Batman had heard that he used the Batplane to get out to Gotham as fast as he possibly could. With any luck maybe someone there would know where Penguin is. However, if Riddler said he had good news then maybe that means he knows where Ferris is and Batman wouldn’t have to worry about keeping anyone conscious when he goes to shut down the cryogenic weapon trade.

“What’s the good news?” Batman asks as he shakes some of the snow that had gathered on his shoulders off. 

“I think I have a match for your Mister Freeze.”

“Name?” Batman asked although it sounded more like an order. 

“Victor Fries. I’m pretty sure he’s our Mister Freeze.” Riddler answered. 

_‘Victor Fries….’_ Batman thought slowly. 

He rolled the name around in his head, but it didn’t sound familiar. The name wasn’t ringing any bells in Batman’s head. He was pretty good with names so the fact that he didn’t recognize it meant that he had probably never met Victor before this night. 

“What do you know about him?” Batman asked as he used his hook shot to yank himself to the roof of the building that was across from him. 

“Nothing.” Riddler said in frustration.

“Nothing?” Batman said in surprise as he pulled himself up onto the roof.

The roof was covered in a thick layer of snow that went up to his knees. It made it a little hard to walk around on the roof, but Batman didn't complain. The snow also made things hard for the criminals to travel through, so it was more useful then frustrating. 

As he trudged through the snow he heard Riddler yell out “You heard me! I looked through a list of Boyle’s employees past and present. I figured I should check the people who worked in the cryogenic field. So I find Victor Fries' name on the list as a past employee, and I decide to look him up. Guess what I find?”

“Nothing?” Batman guessed.

“Nothing! No work records, no experiments registered under his name, and no research papers written by him either!” Riddler ranted. “He’s just a name on some old records! That’s it!” 

“This bothers you.” Batman stated as he walked along. 

“It bothers me a lot!” Edward snapped. “Boyle has some pretty well kept records, so the fact that they have so little on him is suspicious.” Batman paused once he reached the edge of the roof.

“Do you think the records were erased?” He asked.

“I seriously doubt they were lost by accident I can tell you that much.” Riddler grumbled. 

He heard Edward sigh over the comlink and the shuffling of papers. He could hear Riddler grumbling under his breath, but he couldn’t make out exactly what the man was saying. Heck, at this point Batman wasn’t sure if Edward knew his com link was still on. Batman gazed down at the ground below to take a quick stock of everyone that was down there. There were about five men total down there and of course they all had guns. 

_‘I’m going to have to sneak attack them._ ’ Batman thought with a slight frown. _‘Attacking them head on would be suicidal.’_

Batman couldn’t help but notice that there were three people down there that had been frozen. The ice was clear enough that he could see that the men were cops. Seeing them reminded Batman of the few frozen people back in the Wayne family member. Batman quickly flicked on his Detective Vision to check the cops. They were still alive which Batman had kind of expected. The frozen people back in the ballroom were still alive too so it seemed that Freeze’s cryogenic weapons were not deadly. They could turn you into a human popsicle, but they were not killing anyone. Of course the weapons could kill if they altered the weapons a little, but apparently Penguin’s men didn’t know that yet.

It was the only bit of good news that Batman had tonight, but at this point Batman was willing to appreciate whatever good thing he could get. Thinking of the people at the manor just made him wonder how Alfred was doing. Riddler hadn’t said anything about him so he assumed that Alfred was fine, but Batman wanted to ask anyway. Alfred was probably fine, but hearing that he was would give Batman some peace of mind. 

Batman was shaken out of his thoughts when he heard Riddler say “Alright, I figure either someone in the company destroyed most of the records on Victor or Victor himself did it.” 

“And they left his name behind?” Batman asked.

“I think the name slipped through the cracks. Whoever got rid of the info was thorough, but not thorough enough.” Riddler said. 

“Keep searching for information on Victor, and on Ferris’ company. There might be something in the company records that could give us a clue as to why Mister Freeze has it out for Ferris.” Batman ordered as he laid his eyes on the first man that he would strike.

He had been standing near a couple of boxes staring out at the road ahead. He wasn’t patrolling the area, and no one was watching his back. Taking him out would be easy.

“Do you think Ferris’ did something unsavory to get Victor’s wrath?” Riddler asked with curiosity lacing every word. 

“No.” Batman said immediately and a bit louder then he intended to. 

Luckily, he was high up enough that the men below did not hear him. 

“So quick to jump to his defense.” Riddler commented.

Batman frowned as he said “Ferris is a good man.”

“Sure, that’s what his public persona makes him out to be. It doesn’t mean that he’s a good man behind closed doors.” Riddler said. “Acting for some is easy, and for a guy that rich it’s easy to chuck some change at a few charities to make yourself look good.”

Batman wanted to argue against that, but he wasn’t able to mutter so much as word before Riddler said “Commissioner Loeb was not a good man, but he acted like he was and a lot of people fell for it. The Mayor acted like a kind man who wanted to help this city, but you and I know what his true colors are.” 

Batman didn’t have anything to say to that. Like it or not Riddler had a point. The Mayor had up until this point been known as a nice man who donated to charities and created many fundraisers to raise money for a lot of programs meant to help at risk kids. However, the mayor had been in a gang leader’s pocket from day one and it was pretty likely that he had killed those two girls at the hotel. As for Commissioner Loeb he had been on Black Mask’s paycheck for as long as he had been the Commissioner. Is it possible that Ferris may have done something bad to earn Mister Freeze’s anger? 

Batman wanted to say no. Ferris was a kind man who donated much to the Martha Wayne foundation, and he had created quite a few operations to help the poor get back onto their feet. Ferris had earned the Wayne Foundation Humanitarian of the Year Award tonight. Still, that little seed of doubt that Riddler had planted refused to be uprooted. Batman shook his head to rid himself of these thoughts. He didn’t have time to dwell on this. Ferris needed to be rescued and every second he wasted thinking about this was another second that Mister Freeze got to finally snap and kill the man.

“Let’s not point fingers until we have proof. We shouldn’t be pointing fingers until we have all of the facts.” Batman finally said.

“Fair enough, but if your angel of a man turns out to not be as angelic as you think he is I would like to say that I called it.” Riddler said. 

Batman rolled his eyes and held back the sigh that was fighting to make its way out of his mouth. 

“Fine, but before you turn your com link off I have one question to ask.” Batman said. 

“Ask away.” 

“How is everyone back at the Manor?”

“They are safe. The party goers were able to get to their cars and get out of the Manor, and I sent what few officers that the station had to spare off to the Manor to pick up the Neanderthals that you took down.” Riddler assured him. 

His tone was gentle enough so Riddler seemed to understand that Batman has been really concerned about everyone back at the Manor. 

“Thank you Riddler.” Batman said softly.

“You're welcome.” Riddler said without sounding smug or sarcastic. 

The com link went silent and Batman took a in a deep breath of the cold night air before he jumped down to the ground below. He had some thugs to knock out, and if he wanted to save Ferris then he had to hurry….


	5. Have you heard of a girl named Nora?

“Where’s Freeze?”

Batman’s words were slowly growled at in a tone that told anyone who was listening to it that Batman meant business. Batman stared down at the man that currently had the vigilante’s foot resting on his head. He was the only man left awake. The other thugs had been knocked out and were currently laying on the ground around them like bodies on a battlefield. The man wiggled about on the ground like worm in the mud as he tried to shove Batman’s foot off of his head. 

“You think I know?!” The man was able to yell out.

“You plan on celebrating the new year in a traction?” Batman said upon hearing that. 

He pressed his foot down a tiny bit harder on the man’s head, and the man let out a tiny yelp of surprise.

“Okay. Okay!” The man yelled out quickly. “He made a deal with Penguin. Weapons in exchanged for some stiff.”

Batman applied a bit more pressure of his foot upon hearing the stiff bit, and the caused the man to yell out “I mean Ferris Boyle. He’s in GothCorp last I saw.” 

_‘GothCorp?’_ Batman thought in confusion. 

GothCorp was Ferris Boyle’s company. Why would they go to GothCorp for weapons? GothCorp didn’t make weapons. 

_‘Maybe they do. Maybe Riddler was right when he said Ferris isn’t as good as you think he is.’_ A little voice in Batman’s head said. 

Batman mentally shook that negative thought away as he glared down at the man and hissed out “You’re lying! GothCorp doesn’t make weapons.”

“What!? No! I –GothCorp!” The man sputtered out. 

It was like he didn’t know what to say to that.

The man quickly composed himself and cried out “I swear it’s true! I’ve got the entry codes!”

The man reached into his pocket and pulled out a slip of paper before he held it up toward Batman. Batman glared at him for a few seconds before he took the paper from him. He glanced down at the paper for a few seconds, and sure enough they were number codes.

“Riddler.” Batman said into his com link.

“Yes?” Riddler answered without a second of hesitation. 

“I’m going to need to get into GothCorp. I have the codes to the front door, but I’ll need the codes to the rest of the doors in the building.”

“And you want me to get the door codes for you? That should be simple enough for me to get.” Riddler said. 

The man that Batman had pinned to the ground looked confused as to who Batman was talking to which made sense. It’s not like the guy could hear anyone on Batman’s com link.

“I gave you what you want so you’ll let me go now, right?” The man asked. 

Batman knocked the man out in response. 

“Send some police to Fisher Street to come pick these men up.” Batman said as he turned and started to walk away.

“Alright, give me a second.” Riddler said. 

It was quiet on Edward’s side of things for a few moments, but by the time that Batman was about halfway to GothCorp Riddler came back on and said “Alright, the police should be driving by to pick up the men. Now tell me what they told you.”

Batman rolled his eyes upon hearing that. Of course Riddler would demand to know what he found out. 

“They said that Mister Freeze promised to give weapons to Penguin if they got him Ferris.” Batman explained. “What I don’t get is why would they go there? GothCorp doesn’t make weapons.” 

“That we know of at any rate. GothCorp could be making weapons under the table. The weapons trade is quite the lucrative business, and in this city business is booming for weapon dealers.” Riddler said.

Batman didn’t want to entertain the idea of Ferris doing such a thing, but he had to admit that the idea didn’t sound like something that was outside the realm of possibilities. 

“I’m not pointing fingers until we have all of the facts.” Batman said sternly.

“Innocent until proven guilty, huh?” Riddler said. 

Batman didn’t respond to that. 

Instead he just said “Be ready to operate the doors for me I’m almost at GothCorp.” 

“Fine, but I want you to be prepared to find out something about Ferris that you don’t like.” Edward said firmly. 

Batman paused upon hearing that. GothCorp was in view now, and the men that Penguin stationed around the door were also in view. Riddler sounded pretty stern when he said what he said, but at the same time he also sounded slightly concerned about Batman too. It was hard to detect, but the concern was there. Batman was a bit concerned to hear it. 

“Worried about me are we?” Batman asked as a ghost of a smile crossed his face.

“I just want you to be realistic about this! The last thing I need is for you to shut down and lock yourself away somewhere in despair while Mister Freeze and Penguin turn Gotham into a giant ice rink complete with police shaped ice statues!” Riddler said quickly.

“Sure, that’s the only reason.” Batman teased. 

Batman heard Riddler make a loud frustrated noise before he said “Just get into GothCorp and save Ferris!”

His brief moment of teasing Riddler over with Batman quickly sprang into action and brought down the guards that were posted outside. After dealing with them he entered the code into the number pad of the front door. Once the door was unlocked Batman stepped inside. As he took his first step in he could hear the pain filled gasps coming from somewhere above him to the right. He flicked detective mode on and looked up at the balcony overheard. Two men were standing near the railing, and another man was staring down at a man who was lying on the floor. The man on the floor was the one gasping in pain. 

The three men had guns so Batman was going to have to be quick to take them down. Batman used his Bat hook to yank him up to the bars that were closest to the men. The second Batman got up to the top he pulled himself up over the bars and grabbed the two men before he flung them over the side of the handrails. The fall wouldn’t kill them, but it would knock them out. Batman quickly raced over to the man that was standing near the security guard and slammed the man down against the ground about three times.

Once Batman was sure that the man was out cold he looked up at the security guard that was sitting across from him. The man was staring at Batman with wide green eyes. He didn’t look scared, but he definitely had a bewildered look on his face. His nose was bloody, but it didn’t seem to be broken. The man had one heck of a black eye going on, and he had a long cut going down his left cheek. However, other than those injuries the man seemed to be alright. 

Still, Batman went ahead and asked “Are you OK?” 

The man nodded as Batman slowly stood up. He held his hand out toward the security guard, and after a brief moment of hesitation the security guard took a hold of his hand and allowed Batman to pull him up to his feet.

“Thanks, I didn’t know what those guys would do to me.” The man said in relief. 

Batman nodded slightly before he asked “Where are they taking Ferris?”

“Mister Boyle? They’re taking him to the Propellant Research Wing. These guys have been raiding the whole facility.” 

“I’m going after them.” Batman said as he turned away from the man.

“Wait, you are going to need the codes to the doors to be able to get anywhere!” The guard said as he took a step toward Batman.

Immediately after he finished saying that the nearby electrical door slid open. The guard stared at the open door for a few seconds before he looked over at Batman. 

Batman just gave the man a faint smile as he said “The Riddler can handle the doors for me.”

“Riddler?” Batman heard the guard say, but he didn’t bother to say anything to that. 

He just walked through the door started to make his way to where Ferris had been taken…

\----------------------------------------------------------

“So Penguin and Mister Freeze’s relationship is falling apart right before my eyes on the security cameras.”

Batman paused in front of the door to the Propellant Research Wing upon hearing Riddler say that.

“What’s happening?”

“It looks like they are at a stalemate. Penguin won’t hand Boyle over until he gets all of his weapons, and Mister Freeze won’t hand over the weapons until he gets his hands on Boyle.” Riddler said. 

“So they won’t be paying attention if I enter.” Batman commented.

“You can get the jump on them, but be careful anyway. Being on the business end of Mister Freeze’s cryogenic weapon would not be pleasant experience.” 

Batman had a bit of experience with that back in the Manor. He hadn’t been completely frozen, but the experience was still an unpleasant one.

“I’ll be careful.” Batman reassured the man. 

“You better be. One wrong move and you might not live to regret it.” Riddler warned. 

Batman said nothing to this he just walked into the Propellant Research Wing. The second he stepped into the room the sound of bullets hitting metal from somewhere down below echoed around the room. Batman hurried over to the safety railing and looked down at the ground below. No one was dead, and he could see that Boyle was standing in front of Penguin. Penguin had a machine gun shoved up against the man’s back. Boyle was in danger, but he wasn’t dead. A few of Penguin’s men were shooting at Mister Freeze. Mister Freeze was protected by an alcove that had a few computer stations tucked inside. 

“Give me Boyle or I’ll freeze this entire room.” Mister Freeze hissed out. 

That wasn’t an empty promise. Mister Freeze’s handiwork could be seen through this entire building. Hallways blocked off by icy walls, doors frozen shut, and the icicles clung to doorframes and pipes. While some of the damage was done by the few Penguin men that had cryogenic weapons Mister Freeze had probably done his fair share of damage.

However, Penguin most have thought that Mister Freeze was bluffing because he said “I know you won’t. Boyle’s got the codes you need, an’ I ain’t givin’ ‘im up ‘less I get what he’s givin’ ya.”

 _‘Codes?’_ Batman thought in confusion. _‘Codes to what?’_

Batman wasn’t given any time to ponder that question because Mister Freeze’s angry yelling quickly cut into his thoughts.

“What’s behind this door is of no interest to you!” Mister Freeze screamed out.

“Now is probably a good time to jump in and stop the argument.” Batman heard Riddler say over his com link. “Unless you want to see one man destroy the other.” 

That was all it took for Batman to start making his way down to the bottom floor. 

As he ran he could hear Penguin yelling “What I want are the weapons that you are holding out on me.”

“This won’t end well for you Penguin.” Mister Freeze hissed in the most threatening manor that he could muster. 

Whatever Penguin was going to say is left unsaid when Batman jumps down from a grate and starts knocking Penguin’s guards out.

“You again!” Penguin yelled as shifted his gaze from Mister Freeze over to Batman. 

He hesitated for a moment as if unsure of if he should focus his attention on Batman or Mister Freeze. However, once Batman knocked out about five of his men he decided that Batman was the bigger issue. Penguin and the few men that he had left started firing at Batman and started ignoring Mister Freeze. Batman started running just to avoid the bullets. A few stray bullets ended up hitting the pipes set up around the room. Some of the pipes started releasing their contents while others fell to the ground when the things supporting them were shot out from under them.

“OK, you need to stop them from shooting that whole place up because those pipes are filled with things that can turn you all into blocks of ice!” Riddler yelled over the com link. 

“I’m working on it!” Batman hissed as he ducked behind a wall. 

Right when he did that Mister Freeze decided to strike. He used his weapon to freeze Penguin and all of his men. Penguin’s head was still free of the ice, but the man could do nothing as Mister Freeze stepped forward and grabbed Ferris by the arm.

“You belong to me now!” Mister Freeze growled out to Ferris as he shoved him down the hall toward a door that apparently needed a code. 

Batman rushed out from his hiding spot in an attempt to catch Mister Freeze. 

As he stomped his way toward the man he said “I’ll give you one chance to let him go.” 

“Threats are meaningless to a man who has lost everything.” Mister Freeze said before he turned and started shoving Ferris further down the hall. 

Without even turning around Mister Freeze smashed a large pipe that was nearby and started freezing what came out with his cryogenic gun. Batman slid to a stop to avoid being hit and brought his cape up and covered his face to protect himself from whatever was spraying out of the pipe. When everything fell silent Batman released his cape and allowed it to fall out of the way as he stared at the damage that Mister Freeze had done. There would be no following Mister Freeze. The man had created a thick wall of ice at the entrance of the hall. There was no getting around it, and Batman could not shatter the ice with his bare hands or with any of his gadgets. 

Funnily enough Penguin ended up becoming a part of the ice wall. Amazingly Penguin’s head was still free, but the man was so stuck that all he could do was stare straight ahead. Batman hadn’t been frozen, but even he couldn’t escape the freezing conditions that Mister Freeze had created in the room. It was officially colder in the room then it was outside, and considering how cold it was outside that was truly saying something. The cold chill in the room was one that clung to your very bones. Batman’s armor was being covered in a thin coat of frost. It felt like the cold was sapping the warmth out of his body. 

“You! This is your fault!” You get me out a’this!” Penguin yelled out Batman. 

“What does Freeze want? Why does he need Boyle?” Batman asked as he took a few steps toward the man. 

“Boyle’s got codes he needs to access some a’superweapon. And now you let’em have it!” Penguin said as he glared at Batman.

“I-i-i-is that what you really think is behind that door?” Riddler’s stuttering voice called out.

“The hell is that?” Penguin squawked out. 

“Riddler.” Batman said as he turned to look away from Penguin.

Most of the monitors in the room had been smashed, but the two that were right across from Penguin were amazingly still intact. Riddler’s image could be seen, but his image was flickering rather badly.

“Who the hell are you?” Penguin snapped out.

“You don’t listen well do you?” Riddler said in annoyance. “Riddle me this Penguin. I am the bane of the mariner. A tooth in in the sea. What am I?” 

Penguin frowned before he said “Why in the bloody hell are you asking me a riddle now of all times?”

“It’s kind of his thing.” Batman explained.

“What’s wrong Penguin? Too stupid to figure out a riddle that even a toddler would find easy?” Riddler asked in a mocking tone. 

“Shut your mouth you bloody robot!” 

The sound of slow clapping filled the room before Riddler said in the most sarcastic tone of voice that Batman had ever heard “Oh, very good Penguin. Your creative name calling cut me right to the bone.” 

Penguin looked steaming mad now, and Batman had to admit that he was a little amused. However, they didn’t have time to stand around and tease Penguin. Batman didn’t want to stay in this cold room any longer then he had to, and he did have to save Ferris. 

“Did you just chime in to annoy Penguin?” Batman asked.

“No, but pointing and laughing at Penguin was too good for me to resist.” Riddler said in amusement.

Penguin just grumbled a couple of curses under his breath, but batman ignored it in favor of listening to what Riddler said next. “What I want to do was tell you this. Boyle’s company made a cyrodrill that would be perfect to use on that ice wall.” 

Before Batman could even ask where this drill was Riddler said “Of course the drill isn’t in the building anymore is it Penguin?”

Batman turned his gaze over to Penguin, and Penguin just sighed before he said “I had my boys bring our acquisitions-“

“You mean stolen property.” Riddler cut in to say.

“Acquisitions!” Penguin shouted back as if that would somehow change the fact that everything he took was stolen.

“Where is it Penguin?” Batman said as he held in a sigh. 

“I had my boys bring it to My Alibi night club. For safekeepin’, of course.” Penguin said.

“And by safekeeping you mean sell to whatever drunken idiot mobster happens to be in the club.” Riddler said all while sounding a little annoyed that Penguin was trying to make what he was doing sound better than what it really was. 

“I’ll get the drill.” Batman said as he turned to walk out of the room. 

As he walked he heard Penguin say “Right, I’ll just wait here then.” 

“You better hope that what I want is at My Alibi Penguin.” Batman warned as he approached the door that would take him out of there. 

Batman stopped in front of the door and said “Oh, one more thing Penguin.”

He turned to look at Penguin, and the man just gave him a confused look. 

“The answer to the riddle that you were too stupid to figure out is iceberg.” 

Penguin just sputtered out a bunch of angry curses, and as Batman turned and continued on his way he couldn’t help but smile a little as he listened to the Riddler’s gleeful laughter echo around him from the speakers set up in the room….

\------------------------------------------------

“Sir, I have finished preparing the XE Suit.”

That was officially the best news that Batman had heard tonight. The XE suit was an Extreme Environment Batsuit. It was built to withstand the harshest conditions, and it excelled in the cold the most. The Thermal Gloves that were built into the suit would be useful against ice. 

_‘If used right I might even be able to use the gloves to safely thaw out any people that got frozen by the cryoweapons that Penguin’s men have been using tonight.’_ Batman thought. 

He had wanted to take the suit at the second that Mister Freeze broke into the Manor, but it hadn’t been ready yet. However, it seemed like Alfred had been able to make the final adjustments on the suit while he had been out. 

“Thanks for getting it ready Alfred.” Batman said. “Have the Batplane drop it off at the My Alibi nightclub.” 

“Of course, sir. The Batplane is on its way now.” Alfred said.

“Thanks Alfred.” Batman said. 

“Are we any closer to figuring out who are Mister Freeze is?” Alfred asked. 

“Riddler seems to think that he’s a man called Victor Fries.”

“Victor Fries? I have never heard of that name before.” Alfred said.

“Neither have I, but the lack of information that GothCorp has on their formal employee is enough to make me think that Riddler is on the right track.” Batman said. “He’s also brought up a few things that have made me think that there might be more than this just being a case of an angry ex-worker.”

“What do you mean?” Alfred asked in curiosity.

“What I mean is that we might not be happy with what we learn about Ferris when this is all over.” Batman said slowly.

Alfred would probably have asked for more info, but the arrival of the Batplace caused Batman to say “The XE Suit is here, so I’m going to have to go.” 

“Of course, sir. Please be careful out there.” Alfred said.

“I’ll try to be.” Batman said with a faint smile on his face. 

"You trying is all I can ask for." Alfred said before he signed off. 

The Batplane dropped the capsule containing the XE suit onto the roof of the building next to the My Alibi club before it flew off back to the Batcave. Batman quickly made his way to the capsule and opened it up. The bulky suit was lying inside standing tall and ready to be taken out for a test drive. While the suit was big, bulky, and heavily armored it was thankfully easy to put on. Once he put it on he quickly made his way down to the ground floor. The doorway to the club had been blocked with an ice wall, but the Thermal Gloves made short work of that. 

_‘Too bad the gloves aren’t strong enough to deal with the thick icy wall that Freeze made.’_ Batman thought as he walked toward the club’s door.

As he opened the door he turned his com link on and told Riddler “Riddler, I changed my suit Extreme Environment Batsuit to help me better deal with the cryogenic weapons.”

“Yeah, I already see that. I got a good view of you from the club’s security cameras. You look like a rather unsettling robot.” Riddler said. 

“Says the guy that uses a voice disguiser to make himself sound like an unsettling robot.” Batman said. 

Batman stopped walking for a moment to look over at a nearby glass window that looked out to the dance floor and bar that was done below. The glass was just reflective enough that Bruce could get a pretty good look at himself. The suit was a little unsettling looking. The helmet of his suit completely covered his head, and the suit covered every inch of his body so you couldn’t see even a tiny bit of skin. The helmet had no defined facial features, but it was given just enough detail to give it a permanently angry look. His eyes glowed with a soft inhuman white light, and the eyes just had an inhuman look to it in general. 

In a few areas of the suit were cords that glowed with a bright fiery color when he turned on the Thermal Gloves and the way they glowed and looked almost make it look like he had veins filled with lava. The costume was very bulky and made him appear bigger and more muscular then what he really was. The suit really did cut in intimidating figure. Batman shook those thoughts away when he heard what sounded like someone using a cryogun. A glance down below showed that one of Penguin’s thugs was finishing up the job of freezing what looked like a cop. Batman doubted that the poor cop was the only officer in the building.

“Hey, before you start snapping bones I have a request for you.” Riddler said as Batman perched himself at the edge of a windowsill so that he could jump down and start fighting.

“Name the request.” 

“Can you use your thermal gloves to break the officers out of their icy prisons? Saving a few cops will win you brownie points with the few good officers that are in the station, and it will give Gordon some peace of mind to see that the officers that have been sent out into the field is alright.” Riddler said.

“Gordon find a few frozen officers?” Batman asked.

“Yes, and it’s worrying him and the other officers. We have been able to get them out of the ice, but it’s a pretty slow process. If you can speed up the saving process it would be appreciated.” 

“I’ll see what I can do.” Batman said as he pulled out a batarang and charged it up with his Thermal Gloves. 

The man with the cryogun had went to town in the club and created quite a bit of ice structures which included a large ice formation on the ceiling. The large ice chunk that was hanging from the ceiling could knock out about three guys if he could break it. The batarang couldn’t hold too much of a heat charge, but it could hold just enough to bring down the ice chunk that was clinging to the ceiling. He flung the batarang at the ice, and sure enough it was able to smash the ice with ease. The broken chunks of ice fell to the ground and it was able to knock out three men. 

_‘Three down. Three to go.’_ Batman thought as he jumped down and started fighting with the three men that were left. 

The fight didn’t last long, and when it was over Batman approached the frozen police officer.

 _‘Here goes nothing.’_ Batman thought as he turned his Thermal Gloves on and reached out toward the officer. 

The ice started to melt when his hands got near it, and a part of the officer’s arm became visible once the thinnest part of the ice melted away. Batman clamped his hands down on the thickest part of the ice and started charging up as much heat as he could. The ice became unstable and shattered leaving a dazed policeman behind. The man was standing and breathing. The man slowly wrapped his arms around himself as if to try and warm himself up as he stared at Batman with confusion in his eyes.

“You…?” The man said slowly in surprise. 

Apparently he had not expected Batman to rescue him. Batman said nothing to him. He just turned and walked over to the other frozen policeman that was in the room. He was able to yank him out of his icy prison with ease, and while he had been just as dazed as the other guy he recovered quick as he gave Batman a hesitant smile.

“You OK?” Batman asked. 

“I’m damn cold, but I’ll be OK.” The officer answered. 

The man motioned toward a door that led into the back dressing rooms of the dancers and said “Our friend was frozen in there. Can you save him too? I don’t think there are any more of those ice gun using guys in there, but I do know that there are more thugs in there.”

“I will rescue your friend.” Batman reassured the man. 

The officer relaxed just a tad upon hearing that and Batman made his way into the dressing rooms.

The second he entered the room he heard a man dressed in a thick black coat say “Listen, we ain’t goin’ nowhere till you tell me exactly where the money is stashed.” 

The man was glaring down at a man who was sitting on the floor in the corner. The man was just an average citizen and he looked scared. His nose was bloody and he was shivering badly. The frozen cop that Batman had been told about was standing nearby. His hand was stretched out as if he were trying to grab the Penguin thug while a look of rage was frozen onto his face. 

The man on the floor looked like he was going to say something, but whatever he was going to say never made its way past his lips because the second he spotted Batman standing behind the thug his eyes grew wide as he pressed himself up against the wall. The thug looked a little confused by the man’s sudden wide eyed look, but the second he turned around and spotted Batman his eyes grew just was wide. Batman grabbed the man by the neck and lifted him up. His grip was tight enough that he had a firm grip on the man, but lose enough that the man could speak easily. 

“You stole a cryogenic drill from GothCorp.” Batman commented. 

Due to the suit helmet his voice had a sort of robotic filter sound quality to it. It wasn’t quite as electronic as Riddler’s voice modifier, but it was just robotic enough to make him seem slightly inhuman.

The guy in his grip struggled vainly in Batman’s grip as he said “We did, but Penguin had us sell the thing off in parts.” 

“It’s nice to know that my comment that Penguin’s men were selling the drill to a bunch of drunken Neanderthals was right on the money.” Riddler chimed in. 

“Where are the pieces?” Batman asked all while ignoring what Riddler said.

The man quickly rattled off a list of areas where the drill pieces had likely been taken.

Once the man was done Batman just said “Thanks.”

He then knocked the man out before he tossed him down to the floor. He walked over to the frozen cop and broke him out of his icy prison. Like all of the others he seemed to be slightly dazed, and he also looked rather confused. 

“You…? What are you…?” The man said only to trail off.

It was like he was incapable of saying a full sentence. 

“Your friends are outside waiting for you.” Batman told the cop before he turned around and left the room.

When he reached the bar area he stopped for brief moment to tell the cops that were waiting there “Your friend is OK.” 

He then continued on his way out the door. The second he was outside he contacted Riddler. 

“What exactly did you mean when you asked Penguin if he really thought there was a super weapon in the room where Mister Freeze went?” Batman finally asked.

The question had been rattling around in his head for a while now, and he was curious as to what Riddler's answer would be. Riddler was quiet for a moment, and the silence stretched on long enough that Batman almost thought that maybe he hadn’t turned on his com link. 

However, when he was almost at the area where the first drill piece was he heard Riddler say “I found out a bit more about our friend Mister Freeze? Did you know that the man is married?”

Batman said nothing to this. He just stayed silent as Riddler kept talking.

“While Victor isn’t much of a social media person his wife is. They seemed to be a loving couple if all of the happy pictures of them that she posted online are anything to go by.” Riddler said. “Her name was Nora Fries.”

“What happened to her?”

“Her posts mention that she had been feeling under the weather, and after being sick for a while she went to for a checkup at the doctors. She was diagnosed with Huntington's Chorea.”

“That disease has no cure yet. People diagnosed with it don’t live long.” Batman commented. 

“I know, and Nora seemed to know as well. She has a few posts mentioning that her doctors where pretty confident that with treatment they could keep her going for about five years or so.” Riddler explained. “Nora’s last post mentions that she was going to try the treatment, and then that’s the last thing that she ever posted.” 

Batman could hear the slight creaking of a chair and the sounds of someone typing as Riddler said “Huntington’s Chorea is a quick killer, but it’s not that quick. I checked around and so far I have not found any hint that Nora has died and been buried anywhere. The fact that Nora’s sister created a missing persons report for Nora and Victor just confirms the fact that Nora probably didn’t stop posting because she died from her illness.”

“How long ago were the reports created?” Batman asked immediately. 

“Two years ago.” Riddler answered. “Now I know that GothCorp had been doing some research into Huntington’s Chorea. Guess when they stopped doing research?”

“Two years ago?” Batman guessed, but it sounded more like a statement. 

That was mostly due to the fact that it sort of was a statement. Batman already knew about GothCorp doing research into Huntington’s Chorea. He also knew that Ferris had put a stop to the research. When Batman had asked Ferris about it about a year and a half ago during some charity event Ferris had claimed that their lead scientist in charge of the project had quit. They were not making much progress without him, and Ferris had said that the project was put on hold until they could hire someone who specialized in the field. At the time Batman hadn’t thought much about it, but it was starting to become apparent that he should have. 

Batman was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Riddler confirm what he said by saying “That’s right. Two years ago.” 

Batman heard Riddler sigh before he said “The way I see it there could be a couple of things in that room. One possibility is the fact that the cure is in there. GothCorp sells medication, and it's one of GothCorps most profitable branches. Maybe getting money for the pills that keep the disease at bay for a while is more profitable than having the real cure out in the world.”

“Do you have a less cynical possibility?” Batman asked. 

Riddler seemed to snort a bit an amusement before he said “That sounds funny coming from a perpetual frowner like you. Alright, my less cynical answer is that the research that GothCorp did on the disease is back there and that’s what Victor wants.”

“It’s a possibility.” Batman said slowly. “Still, I have to ask this. Exactly how high is the possibility that a weapon is in that room?”

Riddler was quiet for a moment before he said “I can’t give you an exact percentage here, but I would say that a weapon could be there. The chances are sort of low, but I’m not going to rule the possibility out.”

The Riddler paused for a moment before he said “Personally, I don’t know what he would do with it. If he wanted money from it he could have gotten plenty by just selling the cryogenic weapons that he is able to make on his own. If he wanted to just destroy people in unusual ways he could have done so already. His weapons can kill, but everyone that has faced the end of Mister Freeze’s gun is left alive. They are turned into ice statues, but they aren’t killed.”

Batman stopped moving upon hearing that. He was at his destination, and he could see the suitcase with the drill part lying on a box while a group of men seemed to argue about it. They didn’t see Batman because he was on the roof, but Batman could see all of them with ease. 

“I guess we’ll figure out what’s in that room once I get the drill.” Batman said.

“Make sure you hurry in getting it. The suspense is killing me.” Riddler said. 

Batman said nothing to that. He didn’t say anything to that as he started to make his way down to the ground, but he had to admit that the suspense was killing him too. He just hoped that it wouldn’t kill Ferris….


	6. Heart of Ice

“Riddler, I’ve assembled the cryodrill bit it requires some kind of superconducting fluid to operate.” 

The second those words leave Batman’s lips he hears Riddler say “Well, you are in luck because GothCorp has what you need. Maybe.” 

“What do you mean by maybe?” Batman asked. 

“The organic super-coolant was used in a lab that used to belong to one Victor Fries.” Riddler explained. “The lab was closed down due to a lab accident so I don’t know if they left Victor’s things in there or not.”

“I guess we will be finding out.” Batman said as he started to make his way to GothCorp.

"I guess we will." Riddler said before he allowed the comlink fall silent.

Batman was a little sad that Riddler didn't decided to keep talking. The silence of the night was almost overwhelming. When Batman had first went out into Gotham the radio chatter had been pretty loud. Cops were complaining about the snow and trying to figure out how to get around, fake Anarky men laughed about looting shops, and Penguin thugs excitedly chattering about the cryogenic weapons that they were going to get. However, now it was mostly silent. Every once in a while he would hear some street criminals complain that they always do the same thing for New Year’s Eve, and a few cops commented on the fact that missing cops were now returning and swearing that Batman had saved them. However, other than those few instances of radio chatter it was quite for the most part. 

It sounded like for the most part the riots were ending, and the street thugs were starting to go home. It felt like the night was drawing to a close. Like the final showdown against Mister Freeze was almost at hand. Batman was both relived by that thought and yet at the same time a small part of him dreaded it. He was relived at the thought of finally ending Freeze's rampage, but he dreaded what he would possibly find out about Ferris. Riddler had made up a lot of theories about Ferris, and none of them were good. Batman wanted to say that everything that Riddler had come up with was just baseless rumors. That everything that Riddler said was just ridicules theories that could be easily ignored. 

However, they couldn’t be ignored. There were just too many strange things going on. The lack of info on the formal employee Victor Fries, the missing persons report on said missing employee and his wife, and the fact that GothCorp stopped research for a cure to a rare disease that said wife just happened to have was just too great of a coincidence to ignore. Something was going on in GothCorp, and he knew it wasn’t something good. He also knew that if he wanted answers for all of this he might find said answers in Victor’s old lab. 

Batman got to GothCorp rather quick, but getting to Victor’s lab was a bit harder. The place was crawling with thugs either standing guard or trying to figure out how to get out of the building. While the goons were not an issue the ice walls that they and Mister Freeze had created while they were running around were a bit of a problem. Luckily, his Thermal Gloves were enough to deal with the ice walls that blocked the halls. Another thing that made life easier was the fact that Riddler still had the door codes so even though the building was on automatic lock down Riddler could still force the doors open so that Batman could get through. It made Batman rather grateful that he had Riddler around to do that for him. 

When Batman reached Victor’s lab it was obvious that there was more had gone on there than just a simple lab accident. A thick wall of ice blocked the doorway that lead into the main area of the lab, and lying on the ground was a dead security guard. The guard’s skin had the same blue coloration as Freeze’s skin.

“Riddler, I found a dead guard here in Victor’s lab.” Batman said as he knelt down next to the body.

As he did a quick scan of the body he heard Riddler ask “Was he killed by some of Penguin’s men?”

“No, my data analysis is showing that he died of heat stroke.” Batman answered. 

“Heat stroke? Does that area have any signs of overheating?”

“No, it doesn’t show any signs of that.” Batman said. “The man has the same blue skin coloration as Freeze, and he is covered in a sort of crystallized residue that leads into the lab.”

“So more questions that only the contents of Victor’s lab can possibly answer. Why am I not surprised?” Riddler said with a sigh.

“I’m not going to like what I find in that lab.” Batman said as he turned his Thermal Gloves on so that he could melt the ice wall. 

What he said was defiantly a statement. It wasn’t a question, and it didn’t even have a hint of doubt in it.

“I warned you.” Riddler said although he didn’t sound too thrilled about it surprisingly enough.

Batman placed his hands on the icy wall and as he watched it melt away he said “You did, but that doesn’t make things better or easier to swallow.” 

“True, but being warned ahead of time is better than being blindsided by bad news.” Riddler said. 

“True.” Batman said as he let his hands drop down to his sides once the ice wall was nothing but a puddle of water.

The water splashed underfoot as Batman moved into the lab. There were definitely signs of a struggle in the lab. Some lab equipment had been overturned, binders filled with water logged pages decorated the ground, and broken parts of machinery were haphazardly spread about around a desk tucked into a corner of the room. Uncompleted cryoguns were lying on a table pushed up against the wall, and unfinished weapons in various stages of completion could be spotted all over the place. Two hand prints decorated the frosted window that looked out into the room where the dead guard was.

 _‘Upon seeing what happened to the guard that was affected with the same condition as him die in an area that was slightly warmer than this room Freeze must have gutted his machines to create a survival suit.’_ Batman thought as he looked at the various electronic parts and gutted machinery. 

He turned his gaze over to a tank that was nearby that had the word ‘cryovapors’ printed on it in big bold letters. The tank had a hole blown into it. It probably blew due to extreme pressure, but the hole had been sealed up with ice. The frozen guard was standing nearby, but he was just far enough from the tank that Batman was sure that the explosion hadn’t frozen him solid. 

_‘Hard to tell who may have hit him.’_ Batman thought.

The tank must have exploded during the fight and coated Freeze and the guard with the cryovapors turning them into whatever it was that Freeze was now. The tank probably ended up bursting by getting hit with something, but Batman didn't have enough time to really sit there and piece together who hit it and with what. There were bullet holes and a small amount of blood splatter around in the lab so someone had fired a gun in here. A quick look around the room helped him find the gun. The gun had finger prints on it, and a quick scan with Detective Vision told him that the prints belonged to Ferris.

Batman wished he could say that he was surprised by that news, but he wasn’t. Batman chose not to dwell on the gun too much in favor of focusing his attention on the piece of machinery that was in the middle of the room. It was the only machine in the room that hadn’t been wrecked in some way. It looked like a gurney sized object could be pushed into the machine, and if the marks on the ground near the machine were anything to go by apparently something with wheels had been taken out of it. There was a computer attached to the machine that Batman had been able to turn on, and the second he was able to look at the files everything became clear. 

This place was obviously a weapons lab if all the unfinished weapons were anything to go by, but the files on the computer were for Huntington's Chorea. The test subject that they were trying to find a cure for was of course Nora Fries and there were a lot of info of past tests that they had did on her in the computer. A few messages between Victor and Ferris had also been saved onto a file as well. The messages were not pretty. 

Victor was practically bending over backwards to get Ferris all of the weapons that he wanted, but when Victor asked for simple things like test results on Nora Ferris just made a bunch of empty promises that he would get them eventually. Of course everything that Ferris said was just empty promises, and Victor must have figured that out because his last message to Ferris pretty much said that he wasn’t doing anymore weapons development until he at least got some results or news on the Huntington’s Chorea cure for Nora.

Ferris responded by leaving a threatening note that more or less told Victor that he couldn’t speed up the process and that he better keep making weapons or else. The threat was barely subtle, and it was really hard to read it as anything other then a threat. In almost all of Ferris’ messages Batman also noticed that he seemed rather intrigued by how Victor had been able to put his wife into cryostasis. Victor pointedly ignored the questions that involved the cryostasis. The only other thing that Batman could find was a short journal log created by Victor.

 **If Ferris won’t do any research on Nora’s disease then I will. I’ll have to think about getting my own personal lab, and getting Nora out of here as soon as possible would also be a good idea. Ferris has been making subtle threats toward me for a few days now, and I’m worried. I don’t think he will do anything drastic, but leaving GothCorp to independently work on finding a cure would be best for me and Nora.**

If the gun on the floor, the dead guards, Victor’s condition, and the fact that Nora was no longer in the room was anything to go by it was rather obvious that Ferris stopped Victor before he could leave. He quickly copied the files for himself before he connected the computer to the mainframe of GothCorp. With any luck by doing that Riddler would be able to get access to the files on the machine now. 

Once that was done he turned away from the machine and started looking for the superconducting fluid that he needed for the drill. He found two canisters full of the superconducting fluid near the machine. There was just enough fuel in the first canister for Batman to cut a small path through the ice wall, but Batman decided to take the second canister along just in case he needed it. He quickly fueled up the drill with the fluid that was in the first canister before he put the second canister into his belt. Once he was done with that he quickly turned and raced out of the room. 

He needed to hurry and get to Mister Freeze, Ferris, and if she was still in the building possibly even Nora. He was going to rescue Ferris, but at this point he almost didn’t know who he was really saving. Was he saving Ferris from Freeze, Freeze from doing something that he could never take back, or Nora from being a test subject for Ferris? Truthfully it could be all three. Mister Freeze’s situation was sympathetic and at least Bruce could get his thought process.

He wanted to save his wife, and at first he did work for Ferris to get it only to have Ferris never keep his end of the bargain. He didn’t kill anyone, but he did hurt people and working with Penguin was a horrible decision. Also, while he may not have killed anyone he did give Penguin’s men dangerous weapons that were causing a lot of problems and could easily kill people if used in the right way.

Ferris should not be killed, but at the same time Batman’s sympathy for the man was gone. He didn’t keep to his deal to help find a cure for Huntington's Chorea. He had lied about not making weapons to everyone. He smiled at everyone and pretended to be someone who wanted to help the less fortunate when really all he wanted to do was make as much money as he possibly could. The only innocent person in all of this was Nora, and Batman had no idea where she was. 

As Batman ran down the halls he turned on his comlink and said “Riddler?” 

“What did you find out?” Riddler immediately asked before Batman could say anything else.

“You were right about Ferris.” Batman quickly said.

“Well, I hate to tell you I told you so….” Riddler practically sang out. 

“Don’t lie your loving the fact that you are right.” Batman grumbled out in annoyance.

Riddler was enjoying being right a bit too much.

“OK, fine I’m rather happy about being right.” Riddler admitted. “Anyway, what exactly did I get right?” 

“Ferris had a deal with Victor. If Victor developed weapons for him he would do research into finding a cure to Huntington's Chorea.”

“Ferris didn’t keep his promise did he?” Riddler asked. 

“He didn’t.” Batman confirmed. “Victor found out and stopped developing weapons in favor of trying to find a cure for Nora’s Huntington's Chorea. Ferris didn’t like that. I don’t know the exact details, but it seems like a lab accident happened when Ferris tried to kick Victor out. That accident made Victor into what he is now.”

“What about Nora? She went missing after all.”

“Victor put her in cryostasis to keep her disease from advancing any further.”

“And she was still alive in that condition?” Edward asked in amazement.

“She was, and hopefully still is.” Batman answered.

“Amazing, I never heard of that being done on a living human before. Ferris had interest in that I bet.” Edward said. “Being able to freeze sick people and unfreeze them once cures for their aliments become available could be a lucrative business if the freezing truly keeps them frozen in time so to speak.” 

“Pay a large amount of money to be frozen?” Batman suggested. 

“Or pay a large sum of money every month to stay frozen or to keep a family member frozen.” Riddler suggested. 

“Either way Ferris figured that there was a profit to be made by studying her condition. I connected Victor’s computer to GothCorps mainframe so you should be able to get access to the files now.” Batman said.

“Great, I’ll start working on getting some copies of the files for myself.” Riddler said. 

After a few seconds had passed Riddler asked “Hey, do you think Nora is in the room that Victor has been trying so hard to get into?” 

The second after that question left Riddler’s mouth Batman stepped into the room where the giant ice wall was.

“At this point I would be surprised if she wasn’t.” Batman muttered as he walked into the room. 

Penguin was still there stuck in the large wall of ice just where Batman had left him. A few of Penguin’s men were there as well trying their best to break their boss out of the ice. They had a couple of small handheld torches in hand that they were using to try and melt the ice that was keeping Penguin trapped. Needless to say the small fire that the torches created was not doing much to melt the ice. At the rate they were going it would take two days to get Penguin out of there.

“Be careful with that thing!” Penguin squawked out angrily to the man that was trying to melt the ice that was near his face. 

“Sorry boss.” The guy said as he turned the torch off and moved it away from Penguin’s face. 

The other man who was holding a torch let out a frustrated noise before he said “This is taking too long boss! We are going to be here for hours trying to melt this ice with these things!”

“I don’t care if it takes you until the next New Year’s Eve just keep working on getting me free!” Penguin yelled out. 

Batman chose that moment to jump into action. The second Penguin saw Batman silently approach his goons he opened his mouth to say something, but before he could shout out a warning Batman had slammed the two men’s heads together and allowed the now unconscious men to drop to the ground. Batman didn’t bother to say a thing to Penguin as he pulled the drill out and started to set up on the wall so that he could drill a hole into the wall and make it to the other side.

As he worked he heard Penguin say “So you found the drill, huh? Bully for you! That means you can get me out of here now, right?”

Batman continued to say nothing as he turned the drill on and started to drill a hole into the ice. The drill worked rather well and cut through the ice like a knife through butter. Once the way had been cleared Batman removed the drill and started to make his way to the door that would lead him to Mister Freeze and Ferris. 

“Where are you going?!” Penguin yelled. “Come back here and free me you bat loving freak!” 

Batman ignored him in favor of listening to Riddler speak to him over the comlink. 

“There are no cameras in there so I can’t see what happens in there. There is a PA system that I can access, but that’s not exactly useful to either of us. Make sure to be careful.” 

“I’ll try.” Batman thought with a slight smile.

That was the second time tonight that someone told him to be careful. It felt a bit odd for people to tell Batman to be careful in a concerned tone of voice. Penguin was still screaming his lungs out behind him, but Batman just let the man scream himself hoarse as he stepped into the hall. At the end of the hall was another door leading into the room where Ferris and Freeze where. Batman started to ran down the hall only to hear the sound of an explosion happening somewhere in the building rumble in the distance. The whole building shook while the pipes that lined the wall hissed as some gas escaped from the metal tubes.

**Danger. Critical failure in stage two fueling process. Emergency protocols in affect.**

_‘That’s probably not good.’_ Batman thought when he heard the robotic woman’s voice read out the warning over the PA system. 

He couldn’t focus on that now. Taking care of Mister Freeze would probably help stop the situation before it got any worse anyway. As he entered the room he could hear Mister Freeze say “Your body core temperature is dangerously low, Ferris. All I want is get Nora and leave.”

Ferris’ response was quick and absolutely hate filled.

“I’m not giving you the code. I’ll see you both dead before I give you the damn thing!”

As Batman ran down the small hall he glanced out the glass windows of the he could see Victor and Ferris standing on an elevated platform. Ferris had been partially frozen, but that wasn’t really what captured Batman’s attention. What really captured his attention was the tube that was sitting on a stand that was also on the platform. In the tube was a frozen woman with dark colored hair and a pretty summer dress.

 _‘Nora….’_ Batman thought upon seeing her.

It was the woman that Mister Freeze was more or less ripping Gotham apart to find.

Batman shook that thought away when he heard Ferris snarl out “You are a peon, Victor. What are you without me, huh? You’ve got nothing. No money. No resources.” 

Ferris was snarling every word that he said like some sort of mad dog that was snapping at someone who had just gotten too close to its territory. Batman was standing in a hall was suspended up above the platform, but Batman was just close enough to see the utter look of rage on Ferris’ face. It was almost like Ferris wasn’t currently partially frozen and yelling at a guy in an ice gun. 

“Everything around you, I built. Without me, you’d be nothing!”

Ferris sounded pretty unhinged when he said that. After everything that happened to him tonight Ferris must have been at the edge.

 _‘It help that Victor already knows what Ferris is like so I there’s no reason to keep the normal humanitarian mask up.’_ Batman thought as he jumped down to the bridge that lead to the platform. 

His landing wasn’t silent so he captured Freeze’s attention right away. Freeze looked surprised to see Batman, but he got over the surprise rather quickly. The man quickly took up a defensive stance. He wasn’t going into attack mode yet which was good. Still, Batman knew he was walking on thin ice. Victor could snap at any moment and Batman knew it.

“Victor, you have to let him go.” Batman said. 

“I’m taking my wife. You can’t stop me.” Mister Freeze said as he aimed his ice gun at Batman.

“I know the truth. And so will the police. Boyle will face judgment for his crimes.” Batman told Freeze. 

Ferris had already looked pretty angry before, but he looked downright enraged when he heard what Batman said.

“It-it was an accident! You don’t know what you are talking about!” Ferris yelled out. 

Ferris sounded downright frantic when he yelled that. Mister Freeze started scowling upon hearing that while Batman just felt disgusted with Ferris. After everything that Batman had learned tonight the fact that Ferris had the gall to claim that everything was just an accident was disgusting. Maybe turning Victor into Mister Freeze had been an accident, but taking the man’s wife was no accident. If the abandoned gun in the lab was any indication trying to kill Victor hadn’t been a decision that was made at the last second. He went into the lab with a gun. The man was prepared to shoot Victor if it came right down to it.

Before Batman could tell Ferris to zip it Mister Freeze grabbed hold of the man’s exposed shoulder and yanked him out of the ice that he had been trapped in. He flung Ferris into one of the empty tubes that were in the stands that were in the platform. Ferris started yelling something, but his yelling was muffled so Batman really couldn’t understand what he was saying. Mister Freeze quickly turned to and started shooting at Batman. Batman quickly ducked behind a small icy wall that was already on the bridge making so that he got out of the way just in time.

“Nothing matters. Do you understand? Nothing but my Nora.” Mister Freeze said before he turned his gun off and walked over to control panel that was near him and pulled a lever. 

The platform started going up while Batman was left behind on the bridge.

“You have endangered lives all over this city. Nora wouldn’t have wanted this!” Batman shouted to Mister Freeze.

If Batman had any hope that by saying that Mister Freeze may finally stop his revenge plan that hope ended up dying a quiet death when Freeze said “No. What she wants is to live a long life in the warmth of the sun, her hand in mine.” 

Mister Freeze was quiet for a moment as he walked over to the tube where Nora was kept. He stared up at her for a moment before he looked back down at Batman sand said “Because of Ferris, she’ll only feel the icy touch of a man whose emotions run as cold as the blood in his veins!”

Mister Freeze looked up and yelled out “We made a deal! Now get in here and find the Batman!” 

A group of men rushed into the room while Batman just frowned. 

_‘There goes any hope of talking Victor down.’_ Batman thought with a frown. 

There were seven men total in the room. He could sneak attack them so it would not be too hard to deal with. However, Batman had to find the control panels for the cryogenerators and disable them. The tube that Ferris had been flung into had started to frost up so if he wasn’t quick Ferris could either end up like Nora or like Victor. There were a total of three cryogenerators that he had to shut down. He needed to take care of the cryogenerators first before he did anything else. Batman quickly used his Batclaw to yank himself over to some pipes that were overhead. As he sung himself over to the first cryogenerator he could hear Mister Freeze yell out loudly enough for him to hear “Boyle is the real criminal here, Batman! Help me get my wife and no one else needs to get hurt!”

Batman said nothing as he destroyed the first cryogenerator. 

_‘One down.’_ Batman thought as he rushed off to take down the next generator. 

“Do you understand what it’s like to have someone taken away from you?” Freeze shouted out for Batman to hear.

Oh, he knew. If anyone knew what it was like to lose someone that you loved it would be Batman. Batman continued to say nothing. He did not to alert anyone as to where he was. Destroying the second cryogenerator of course caused an alarm to go off and the automated warning system just had to loudly announce to everyone in the room that the second cryogenerator had been destroyed. Batman cursed under his breath as he leapt out of the way of a Mister Freeze’s attack.

He quickly scurried out of Mister Freeze’s view and breathed a small sigh of relief when he heard Freeze yell out “I lost him! You all need to hurry up and find him before he destroys the last cryogenerator!” 

He quickly rushed off to the last and destroyed that too. The second the cryogenerator was destroyed he sprang away from the machine and rolled behind a series of thick pipes. The room had become frostier and many of the pipes that lined the platform that Mister Freeze was standing on had busted and were spraying out their contents. Mister Freeze walked over to the control panel once again. 

Batman could not see what he was doing, but a sort of white mist started to spill out of every vent that was in the room. The room was filled with so much mist that Batman could not even see his hand in front of his face. Not that it mattered since Batman felt like he could not move his limbs. He felt stuck like he was frozen in place. Batman had been frozen once tonight so he could recognize that he had yet again been frozen in place. As he tried to break free he could hear Mister Freeze’s calm voice echo around him. 

“Let’s see how well you do when the air freezes in your lungs.” 

The mist started to disappear just in time for Batman to break free from the ice that had been encasing his body. Mister Freeze jumped down from the platform that he had been standing on and landed onto the ground floor with a loud clang.

As Batman ducked behind a thin wall he heard Mister Freeze yell out “I want him found!”

Batman quickly flicked his Detective Vision on only to see Freeze’s men had cryoguns of their own on hand, and they were now silently stalking around the area like wolves on the hunt for their next meal. They would be annoying to deal with, but the real danger was Freeze. Batman couldn’t take him on head on. Not when he had that gun of his, and not when Freeze was in that suit of his. The armor was almost impenetrable, but not completely unbeatable. On Freeze’s back there were plenty of tubes and wiring that could be yanked out. Doing that would damage the suit enough that it would stop Freeze in his tracks.

Freeze was walking by the wall that he was hiding behind. Once Freeze had walked ahead enough that Batman smashed the wall and grabbed a hold of one of the many tubes that were attached to his back. It took a hard yank to get the tube to detach and as it dispelled the gas that it had been pumping into the suit Batman quickly raced off before Freeze could spot him or do an attack of his own.

As Batman slid into a nearby vent he heard Freeze say “I will find you Batman. You cannot hide forever.” 

_‘I would not bet on that.’_ Batman thought as he watched Freeze walk by the vent that he was hiding in.

Again, once Batman had a good view of Mister Freeze’s back he raced out and ripped another part off of Freeze’s back before he raced off out of view. This went on for a while and every time Batman ripped a piece of the suit off Freeze’s calm composure fractured. His once calm voice was now annoyed and enraged. Every angry order that he issued served to just unnerve his men and make them more and more nervous. There was a very real possibility that Freeze’s hired men thought that Freeze would just snap and freeze them all if they didn’t get Batman. Honestly, the possibility of that happening was just high enough that Batman could not blame them for getting nervous.

As all of this was going on the lab was falling apart. The automatic voice over the intercom would chime in every five minutes to warn that some part of the lab had shut down. However, both Batman and Freeze ignored the announcements since they were not important. That would end up changing when they heard an announcement involving Nora. 

**Cryogenic containment failing. Prime subject, Nora Fries, in danger.**

“Nora!” Mister Freeze immediately yelled out before he quickly turned his attention to his gauntlet that was covered with buttons.

A few quick pushes of the buttons caused the pipes in the room to spill out white mist as the room grew even colder. The mist made it hard to see, but once it cleared up Batman saw that Mister Freeze had made his way up to a control panel and he seemed to be desperately trying to fix the situation.

“Hang on Nora, just hang on.” Batman heard Freeze murmur. 

Freeze was no longer paying attention to him, and thanks to all of the things being pumped into the room all of his guards had been frozen solid. It gave Batman the perfect opportunity to strike from behind. A few well-placed hits with the Thermal Gloves on full power, and a lot of slamming Freeze against the hard metal walls over and over again like his life depended on it finally brought Mister Freeze down. His suit had been damaged enough that the hits had actually been effective. 

As Freeze laid at Batman’s feet he weekly called out “Nora.”

Batman was about to reassure the man that he would fix the Cryogenic containment problem so that she would be alright, but before he could say a word he heard Ferris say “Thanks for doing the heavy lifting, Batman.” 

Batman looked up only to see that Ferris was standing at the edge looking down at him. The man’s grin was downright maniacal while the tone of his voice sounded more menacing then grateful.

“However, you should not have stuck your nose in my business.” Ferris said as he walked over to a control panel. 

Batman had just enough time to shove a venerable Freeze out of the way before he was hit with a cryoblast. Batman hadn’t known that Ferris had hidden weapons like that in the lab, and now he was partially frozen because of his lack of awareness.

“And here I thought I was going to have a problem explaining what happened in your lab.” Ferris said to Freeze as the platform started descending down to the ground floor.

“I mean the police are never going to look at me after what you did! And with the bat-freak dead, there won’t be anyone left to say otherwise.” Freeze could not stand or do much of anything after his suit had been so badly damaged and after having Batman beat him down. 

All the man could do was crawl forward and cry out “Nora!”

**Cryogenic containment failing.**

Ferris just continued to grin like a demon about to crush someone underfoot upon hearing that. As he approached Freeze’s crumpled form he said “And that just leaves you Freeze…” 

“Please you can save her. You just have to bypass th-“ Freeze started to beg only to be cut off by Ferris.

“No, Victor. She dies. But I’ll keep you alive just long enough to see her go.” Ferris leaned down and ripped a large metal pipe off of the cryogun part of Mister Freeze’s suit.

The second he had the part in hand he started to slam the pipe down on Mister Freeze. Freeze was already pretty beat up and his suit was heavily damaged enough that if Ferris kept doing that he could very well kill Freeze. Batman let out a few mental curses as he worked on freeing himself from the ice. This ice was thick and hard to break free from. At this rate by the time he freed himself Freeze would be dead. 

“Emergency call to Riddler.” Batman ordered.

Luckily his voice activated comlink was in working order because two seconds after he said that he heard Riddler’s voice over the comlink.

“You finally catch Freeze?” 

“I need you to distract Ferris.” Batman ordered as he put as much energy as he could into his Thermal Gloves.

“Ferris? Why do I nee-“ Riddler started to say only to be cut off by Batman. 

“Just do it before Ferris kills Victor!”

Mercifully, the next time Batman heard Riddler’s voice it was over the intercom and not his comlink.

“Ferris!”

 ** _Ferris, Ferris, Ferris, Ferris, Ferris…._ **

Riddler’s voice boomed out of the intercom speakers with such force that it was almost overpowering. It drowned out the hissing of the gasses that were spilling out of the busted pipes in the room, and the sound of Ferris smashing his pipe down against the glass dome of Mister Freeze’s helmet could not even be heard over Riddler’s yell. Riddler sounded calm, but there was a hint of anger in his voice. Hearing Riddler call out Ferris’ name made Batman think of a mother who just caught their child with their hand in the cookie jar. 

Ferris slowly stood up straight and looked around the area with wide wild eyes. It was almost like he honestly thought he would be able to spot the Riddler. Mister Freeze seemed slightly dazed, but the man was just aware enough to be able to look confused about what was going on. By now Batman had freed his right arm and was desperately clawing away at the ice that kept his left arm trapped.

As he broke the chunks of ice off of him he could hear Ferris yell out “Who are you?!”

“I am the Riddler.” Riddler answered. 

There was no stuttering when Riddler said his name, but it seemed to be a bit louder now if that was possible. Ferris looked like he was about to say something, but he never got the chance because Riddler ended up asking a question.

“Do you honestly think you will get away with murdering Mister Freeze?” 

Ferris started up at the ceiling upon hearing that with a look of disbelief. He tightened his grip on his pipe and he had it placed against the glass dome of Mister Freeze’s suit. Batman tensed a little when he saw that. Ferris wasn’t swinging yet, but the man looked like he could snap at any second and start swinging like a mad man. Two good hits to the dome would cause it to smash, and having all that glass fall onto his face would not be good for Freeze. 

Ferris stood still as a statue, but he started to grit his teeth together when he heard Riddler say “Or should I call Mister Freeze Victor? That is his real name after all, and his real name is no secret to me or you.”

“How do you know who he is?!” Ferris howled out.

Riddler’s response was to laugh. His laugh was harsh and kept jumping from being fast and high pitched to slow and deep. Ferris was angry and looked like a raging bull that was ready to go on a rampage. By now Batman had freed the left side of his body and he was working on getting the ice that was on his legs off. Riddler was doing a good job of keeping Ferris distracted, but Batman couldn’t help but think that if Riddler wasn’t careful Ferris would snap and start beating Freeze to death with a fury that could make Bane’s rage look tame in comparison. 

When Riddler finally stopped laughing he said “Oh Ferris I know every single one of your vile secrets.” 

Batman didn’t know how he did it, but somehow Riddler was able to make every single word that came out of his mouth drip with smug satisfaction as he said “I know about how you didn’t keep your end of the deal with Victor when it came to finding a cure for Nora. I know that you are the reason for Victor’s infliction, and I know that you have been covering up the accident in Victor’s lab for a long time now. I also know that you have been keeping Nora trapped here like a ginnie pig when you have no right to do so.” 

“You can’t prove anything!” Ferris yelled out without a second of hesitation.

However, while Ferris didn’t hesitate to say that he sounded unsure. There was a slight shaking in his voice that made him sound more uncertain rather than confident. Rage was still plastered onto his face, but there was an air of uncertainty there as well.

“Au contraire my dear imbecile I have the files from Victor’s lab to prove that have done some very naughty things. I wonder how the news stations will react when they get these files.” Riddler said.

“You can’t…” Ferris started to say only to have Riddler interrupt him.

“I can. After all who do you think leaked all of the Mayor’s dirty secrets to the every single news outlet in Gotham?”

Ferris never got the time to respond because right when Riddler was done asking his question Batman finally freed himself from the ice. Batman flung himself toward Ferris and punched him in the face. The hit caused Ferris to stumble back and fall to the floor. Blood started to dribble down from his nose. Batman probably broke his nose. He couldn’t bring himself to care much about that, and some small dark part of himself was a little happy that he had done that. Batman stared down at him with a scowl and Ferris just stared back up at him with fearful eyes. The harsh rage that had once graced Ferris' features was long gone now. Now Ferris just looked like a fearful coward. Batman punched him hard once more and that was enough to knock the man’s lights out. 

“Take a seat humanitarian.” Batman spat out. 

Ferris was out cold so it’s not like he could hear what Batman had said which was fine since Batman said that more for his own satisfaction more than anything else. Just calling Ferris humanitarian left a bad taste in his mouth even though he said it in a sarcastic manor. After everything that Batman learned tonight the fact that Ferris had won humanitarian of the year just made his skin crawl. When tonight was all over he was going to make damn sure that the reward was taken away from Ferris and given to someone who actually deserved it.

Batman turned away from Ferris and started to walk toward Nora’s cryochamber. Ferris had been taken care of, but Nora’s chamber still had to be dealt with. A control panel on the side of the cryochamber allowed Batman to restore her cryogenic containment. She would not be dying today.

Once she was taken care of Batman turned his attention to Mister Freeze. His suit was sparking a bit, and over the crackling of electricity Batman could hear Freeze’s wheezing. Mister Freeze was giving him a look that was a mixture of surprise, gratefulness, and confusion. Freeze was grateful that he had saved his wife, but obviously surprised that he did so. As for what he was confused about that could be over a lot of things.

“I’m sorry Victor. I can’t give you peace, but I can get you justice.” Batman said as he walked over to Mister Freeze and knelt down next to him. 

He pulled the canister of superconducting fluid out of his belt and placed it into the slot that was on Mister Freeze’s suit. It wasn’t a lot, but the fluid should be enough to keep Freeze’s suit running until the police could patch his suit up or stick him into a room that was cold enough for him to survive in. Freeze stared at him for a few seconds before he moved his gaze over to Nora. Batman could hear Freeze murmur his wife’s name before he closed his eyes. The man had just lost conciseness so Batman wasn’t too worried about him.

Batman’s shoulders slumped as he finally allowed himself to just stop and take a breath. The room looked like it got hit with blizzard. Ice clung to almost every surface, and Mister Freeze’s frozen men looked like ice sculptures out on display. He would have to free them all before he could leave, but that would be simple enough. While the hissing of the gasses coming from the pipes kept it from being completely quiet it was still calm enough to be almost relaxing. Batman closed his eyes and allowed himself to just relax for a few seconds. 

“So is the battle over? Is Mister Freeze still breathing?” 

The sound of the Riddler’s voice causes Batman to open his eyes and stand up a bit straighter.

“Ferris has been knocked out, Freeze is still breathing, and Nora is still cryogenically frozen.” Batman answered. 

The sound of Riddler clapping his hands together was easily heard over the comlink, and Riddler sounded downright cheerful as he said “So mission accomplished then. Should I call in the police cavalry now?” 

“Let me free all of Freeze’s men first before you start calling anyone in.” Batman said as he started to move toward the closest frozen man.

“Alright, but you should know that a few of the security guards that you rescued at GothCorp have made their way to the police station and filed a police report. A police force should be making their way over to GothCorp soon enough.” Riddler warned. 

“Let me know when they get close.” Batman said. 

“Sure, there’s one more thing I have to tell you.”

“What?” Batman asked. 

“Happy New Year, it’s officially midnight.” Riddler said.

Batman blinked a few times in surprise before he just sighed. If this was how the year started Batman dreaded to think about what the rest of the year would be like….


	7. Calm after the storm

**Breaking news out of North Gotham at this hour where protests have turned to celebration. Under extreme pressure from Gotham’s citizens, Mayor Hill has just announced his resignation.**

“Great, so we got rid of one corrupt mayor just so that we can replace him with some new corrupt mayor.”

Edward scowls when he hears Bullock’s voice. Bullock had always been a little loud, but right now the man was so loud that he might as well have been shouting through a megaphone. Hell, right now everything seemed to be loud. The news announcer’s voice that was currently coming from the TV sounded too loud, the sounds of the phones in the police station ringing was too loud, and even his coworkers were more irritating than usual. Of course all of this could be due to the fact that Edward was running on only two hours of sleep so his tired cranky self had little patience for much of anything right now.

Although, to be fair to his coworkers everyone at the police station was exhausted so they were probably just as cranky as him. The police station had been on high alert ever since the riots happened on New Year’s Eve. Mister Freeze’s rampage really hadn’t helped matters either. They were a little understaffed due to the fact that most of them were taking a day or two off so they could get checked out and make sure that being frozen solid hadn’t caused any long term affects to their health. Everyone was overworked, and everyone was running on way to little sleep and way too much coffee. 

Edward eyed the coffeemaker and the sleepy police officer that was waiting for it to finish making another pot. The dang thing had already made about twenty or so pots of coffee, and it was only around seven in the morning. Edward moved his gaze away from the coffee pot and over to the smorgasbord of breakfast items that covered almost every single counter top in the break room. Everyone brought in a box of some sort of breakfast item like doughnuts, muffins, fresh fruit, and whatever else that could be easily eaten for breakfast. Gordon had sent out a message request for people to bring in breakfast items if they could in an attempt to make the day a little better. A lot of people stepped up and totally did what Gordon asked.

 _‘Our morning might suck, but at least we can eat like kings.’_ Edward thought as he snatched a double chocolate chip muffin from the muffin container.

As he grabbed his breakfast he could hear the lady announcer’s voice as she continued her news story. 

**While Hill has not ruled out a possible run for re-election in the new year, his resignation means that Peter Grogan will likely not be the next police commissioner of Gotham.**

“Like hell Hill is going to be elected mayor ever again.” One woman officer said as she grabbed a glazed doughnut and started to shuffle out of the room. 

“We already have some officers going to his house to arrest him for charges of murder so I can grantee that Hill won’t get to be a mayor again.” A voice said from the entrance of the break room. 

Edward glanced over at the entrance only to see Gordon. Gordon looked exhausted, but he had a friendly smile on his face. A few people offered the man their greetings while he made his way over to where Edward was standing. 

Once he got close enough Edward asked “You are really arresting him?”

Gordon nodded as he said “Yep, those files you were able to uncover gave us all the evidence that we need to put Hill away for a long time.” 

“That’s good.” Edward murmured as he looked down at the muffin that he had in hand.

From the corner of his eye he could see Gordon give him an almost sympathetic smile. 

“I know you were gunning to get him behind bars for a long time now Edward.” 

“He’s done a lot of things to deserve going to jail.” Edward muttered. 

"He has, but I think the biggest offender is his ending the life of those two women.” 

Edward supposed he shouldn’t have been surprised to hear Gordon say that. The case of the two eighteen year old girls that were fished out of the water had always bugged him, and Edward was never subtle about it. He knew Hill was guilty when he read the case files and saw that Hill was involved. It was easy to find out that the man would spend quite a lot of cash to satisfy his sexual urges. He visited the red light district often enough for Edward to track him. The clubs and brothels could try to keep it hidden that that the mayor was a frequent customer, but Edward had his ways of finding out the truth.

However, while Edward could easily reveal that the man was a frequent visitor of brothels he couldn’t get enough solid evidence to book him for the murders of the two girls who worked in Gotham’s red light district. Not helping matters was the fact that Commissioner Loeb rejected any of Edward’s attempts to get the police to really investigate. Not being able to throw Hill into the slammer had been absolutely frustrating. However, with Loeb dead and Lieutenant Brandon fired the police were much more open to the idea of investigating Hill. Also, with the help of Batman Riddler got his hands on all of the evidence that he needed to prove Hill's guilt. To be able to do something about the case after having his hands tied for so long was almost cathartic. Edward mentally shook the thoughts about how great it was that Hill would be getting what he deserved, and looked back up at Gordon. 

“Those girls were practically children.” Edward eventually murmured.

Gordon gave the man a sad look as he said “I know, but at least now they can get some justice.”

Edward nodded, but now he felt a little awkward. He and Gordon had talked frequently, but they never had deep conversations of any sort. Having a conversation like that now just felt weird. Not that it was bad, but it was weird. Weird enough that Edward was more then ready for the subject to drop. 

Mercifully, before the conversation could continue someone called out “Gordon, I think they are going to talk about you on the news!”

**Speculation has already begun about who the new mayor will appoint as commissioner with many pundits naming GCPD Captain James Gordon as the front runner.**

A cheer could be heard from almost everyone in the room upon hearing that. Even Edward had to smile just a tad. If Gordon was the commissioner then maybe the good officers in this place could actually do their jobs. 

“Calm down everyone there is no grantee that anything like that will happen.” Gordon called out over the cheers. “I seriously doubt that I’ll be commissioner.” 

“Come on Gordon if anyone could be commissioner it would be you.” Edward said.

A couple of people shouted out their agreements while Gordon just gave Edward a look that seemed to say _‘You are not helping.’_

Edward just offered a smirk in response.

“Come on Gordon you would be a better commissioner then Peter. That guy has no backbone.” Bullock called out. 

“Yeah, for once Bullock is right about something.” Edward said before he took a bite of his muffin. 

“Hey!” Bullock yelled out looking a bit insulted, but not enough to really do anything about it.

Ribbing each other was almost a requirement for working in the GCPD so Bullock was more then used to Edward’s jabs at him. A few of the officers loudly let Gordon know that they agreed with Bullock while Gordon tried to reiterate to them that the chances of him being made commissioner were slim to none. Edward just stood back and listened to loud chattering while he ate his muffin. Everyone started to quiet down however when the news castor said that they would be going to Vicki Vale who would be reporting live from GothCorp. 

Edward looked up from his muffin just in time to see that the news station had switched over to Vicki. Vicki was standing in front of the GothCorp building looking rather serious and like she hadn’t been trapped in a mansion with a bunch of thuggish arsonists last night. Edward could see a few cop cars in the background along with a few police guards standing outside. As a slow trickle of police went in and out of the building behind Vicki the woman started to speak. 

**I’m standing at the corporate headquarters of GothCorp where police have confirmed that GothCorp CEO, Ferris Boyle, has been taken into custody. Police report that Mister Boyle, stands to be accused of manslaughter, extortion, and attempted murder- shocking accusations given that yesterday he accepted the Wayne Foundation’s reward for Humanitarian of the Year.**

“How long do you think it will be before that reward gets revoked?” Gordon asked.

Edward just shrugged in reply. No one made any smartass comments about Ferris. They all just stared at the TV with grim expressions on their faces. The only one who didn’t look grim was Edward. If anything he looked almost bored.

 _‘They must still be in shock.’_ Edward thought almost absentmindedly. 

Up until now Gotham as a whole had believed that Boyle was some sort of a saint that did everything under his power to make Gotham a better place. Hearing the list of his crimes being said out loud really hammered home the fact that his humanitarian persona was nothing but an act. Edward wasn’t affected by the news. Edward was jaded enough that he had a hard time accepting the whole kind philanthropist act at face value. 

**Also in custody is the notoriously elusive underworld crime boss, Oswald Cobblepot, better known as the Penguin. As well as a GothCorp cryogenicist, Victor Fries.**

Edward tossed his muffin’s wrapper away into the garbage before he turned toward the door so that he could start walking out of the room. He got his breakfast so he was more than ready to head back to his office. The sooner he got to his office the sooner he could finish up his paperwork and leave. As he walked he could hear Vicki mention that Victor would be bought to Gotham General so they could attempt to cure his strange affliction. 

Edward didn’t think much about that, but he did walk a bit slower when Vicki mentioned Quincy Sharp. He had heard Sharp’s name a few times in the news already. The Sharp family was a pretty old Gotham family, and Quincy seemed to be trying to build a political career for himself. He was a strong advocate for stronger punishments for criminals, and he was also rather vocal about having a special facility opened up in Gotham for the criminally insane to get help.

**Quincy Sharp has suggested that Mr. Fries is yet another example of the type of criminal that needs the specialized care that only Arkham Asylum can provide.**

Edward really didn’t know what to think about that. Arkham Asylum had been abandoned for decades, and the only people who went there were teenagers who wanted to scare themselves silly and the occasional urban explorer. Arkham had a pretty bad past, and it wasn’t known for having a history of actually helping people. It was known for its creator having a mental breakdown, the murders of the Arkham’s wife and child, patients going missing, and the strange deaths of some of its patients. Maybe it’s horrible past was to be expected. If the place is bad enough to inspire H.P. Lovecraft to name a place in his books after it that’s probably a bad sign. Edward wasn’t one to believe in bad luck or the supernatural, but there was just something off about Arkham. Edward could hear some hushed whispers coming from the others in the room, but Edward didn’t stop to listen to them. However, right when he reached the door he stopped when he heard what Vicki said next. 

**The police credit these arrests to solid police work, but this reporter suspects the vigilante known as Batman and his new partner the Riddler had more than a small role to play.**

Edward turned his head to look back at the television upon hearing that. As he did he noticed the general look of uncertainty that most of the people in the room. No one really knew how to react when it came to Batman. As much as they may not like to admit it Batman and Riddler was the main reason why Penguin, Victor Fries, and Boyle were brought into custody. They knew it, Vicki knew it, and Edward sure as hell knew it since he helped Batman get the job done. Then there was the fact that Batman freed a lot police from being stuck as ice statues. Still, he was a vigilante who seemed to be doing their jobs for them and that rubbed quite a few people the wrong way.

Edward was sure that what Vicki said was the end of the report, but she didn’t look like she was done. On the TV Edward could see her frown a little as she looked down at the ground for a few seconds. She looked like she was mentally debating something. Whatever she was thinking about she seemed to figure it out pretty fast as she lifted her head up and looked straight ahead. She stood tall as a serious expression crossed her face. She looked like she was about to make a major announcement. 

**On a personal note, I owe Batman a debt of gratitude for rescuing me from almost certain death last night. I also owe a thanks to the Riddler for guiding me and many others to safety. So, thank you, Batman and Riddler. From all of us.**

Edward couldn’t help but blankly stare at the screen upon hearing that. He wasn’t expecting to hear that. He wasn’t expecting to hear that at all. He hated to be sappy about it, but he had to admit that having someone be so grateful for his help and to thank him so vocally made him feel the warm fuzzes a bit. He was still exhausted, but somehow hearing that grateful thanks made him feel a bit more energized. He felt good. He sure as hell wasn’t going to be skipping down the hall in joy, but he couldn’t keep the smile off of his face as he walked out of the break room and started to make his way to his office. Of course the smile wouldn’t last for long. About halfway to his office he found about five officers standing outside one of the integration rooms looking concerned. Edward’s smile slowly fell from his face once he spotted them.

“Why are you all standing outside the door looking like a monster is about to spring out of the door?” Edward asked as he came to a stop near them. 

The men all looked over at Edward upon hearing that, and after staring at him for a good solid minute one of the men finally blurted out “It’s Victor Fries. We don’t know what to do with him.”

“What do you mean you don’t know what to do with him? Edward asked in confusion. “I thought he was going to be shipped off to Gotham General so that they could see if they could do something about his condition.” 

“He is.” One of the officers immediately answered.

“Then what’s the problem?” Edward asked as he crossed his arms. 

“It’s his wife.” A man with a rather bushy beard said.

“She didn’t suddenly thaw out and die did she?” Edward asked touch of concern in his voice.

“No, nothing like that. We have her capsule sitting in Brandon’s old office.” The man answered. “We need to talk to Victor to figure out where we should put her while he's in prison, but he wants her with him right now. I don’t think it’s allowed.” 

“Let me guess you told him that having Nora with him was a no go, and that caused him to flip?” Edward said as he let his arms drop down to his side.

He didn’t get a verbal answer, but they all nodded as they gave Edward a look that seemed to say _‘What do we do now?’_

_‘I don’t get paid enough to deal with this idiocy.'_ Edward thought as he rolled his eyes.

He pointed at the blond haired officer that was standing closest to the door and said “Go get Gordon. He should still be in the break room.”

The man nodded before he turned and started running off to get Gordon. Edward watched him turn the corner and once he was gone he turned to face the remaining officers.

“I’ll talk to Victor Fries.” 

Most of the officers looked relived that they didn’t have to deal with Victor anymore. 

One officer still looked concerned and after a brief moment of hesitation he asked “Are you sure it’s OK for you to talk to him sir? You don’t usually talk to the prisoners.”

"It will be fine. His suit has been stripped of anything that can cause damage. Just stay out here so I can call on you if I need you.” Edward said.

The man said nothing to that, but he still looked concerned. Edward ignored the look and slipped into the integration room. As he let the door slam shut behind him he noticed the chill in the air. It wasn’t quite cold enough to need a jacket, but considering the fact that the rest of the station was a furnace the chill in this room was noticeable. The next thing he noticed was Victor staring right at him. His red goggles shielded his eyes, and his lips were pressed into a thin line. It was impossible to figure out what he was thinking. All Edward could really tell was the fact that Victor was unhappy.

Another thing that Edward noticed was that Victor’s suit definitely looked different from the last time that Edward saw it. The last time he saw it on GothCorp’s security cameras the suit had been a big bulky thing stacked with weapons. It put any suit of armor to shame, and made Victor look like a human tank. However, right now it didn’t look like much. When Victor was brought into custody his armor had been stripped of all its weapons and anything that could give Victor an edge over the cops. Right now it just had the basic parts needed to keep Victor alive. Instead of looking like a suit of armor it now looked like a biohazard suit made of metal.

Edward didn’t miss the fact that Victor’s right arm had been handcuffed to an iron bar that was bolted down to a support pillar. The bar had been added to deal with the stronger prisoners who lashed out at anyone who walked into the interviewing room. It wasn’t used often, but it looked like they decided to use it on Victor. Edward sat down in the chair that was across from Victor and placed his hands down on the table.

“Hello Victor.” Edward said. 

Instead of returning his greeting Victor asked through greeted teeth “Where is Nora?”

“She’s here in the building. We currently have her sitting in an unused office. She is still frozen, and she is doing well.” Edward answered. 

A mixture of relief and surprise flashed onto Victor’s face, but it was quickly replaced by Victor’s thin lipped serious look. The relief was to be expected, but the surprise was not expected.

 _‘Did they not tell him where Nora is?’_ Edward wondered.

Edward decided not to ask. Not that he really had a chance to ask. Victor started making demands before Edward could even think of what to say. 

“I want her here with me.”

“Alright.”

Victor sounded like he had been ready for an argument, but Edward’s quick agreement seemed to take the wind out of his sails. He didn’t bother to mask his surprise this time as he stared at Edward. He looked at Edward for a good three minutes or so not saying anything. Edward didn’t give Victor time to say anything as he continued to talk. 

“I can’t promise that I can get results since I’m not in a position to make those decisions. However, I can try to see if I can’t get Nora in here with you. You’ll have to be under watch if we do get Nora in here, but at least she will be here with you.” 

Victor was silent for a few moments, but eventually the man let out a soft almost inaudible sigh. 

“I suppose you trying the best that I can hope for.”

Edward smiled for a brief second upon hearing that. 

_‘Good to know he’s being realistic about this.’_ Edward thought.

“Victor, you are going to be transferred over to Gotham General. They want to cure your condition.” Edward told the man.

“They can’t cure me.” Victor hissed out almost like the thought of them thinking they could cure him was insulting.

“Well, they want to try.” Edward said. “However, that’s not important now. What is important is what you want to do about Nora.”

Victor just stared at him while Edward said “You are still her husband, and she can’t exactly say what she wants done with her. Where do you want her kept while you are at Gotham General?”

Victor was silent for a few seconds before he softly asked “Can I have her with me when I am transferred to Gotham General with me? I have just gotten her back and do not wish to be separated from her.”

“I think we can do that.” Edward said as he stood up from his seat. “I’ll talk it over with the people who are transferring you over to Gotham General so that they can be prepared to move Nora too.”

Victor nodded, but said nothing as he watched Edward move toward the door. Edward placed his hand on the doorknob, but didn’t turn the knob. 

Instead he looked over at Victor and said “There’s one more thing. There are talks about reopening Arkham Asylum, and if that does happen they might move you there. I figure you should know about that.” 

Victor nodded once more as he said “Thank you for this information, and for at least trying to help me with Nora.”

Edward was a little surprised that Victor thanked him like that, but Edward didn’t allow his surprise to show on his face.

Instead he just said “No problem.” 

Edward opened the door and stepped out into the hall only to slam right into Gordon. Edward stumbled back a few steps and gave Gordon a mock glare. 

“Geez, what are you made of? Bricks?” Edward asked as he slammed the door shut behind him.

Gordon ignored Edward’s grumbling in favor of saying “Had a few cops come running to me saying that you decided to go talk to Victor. Since you seem to be fine I think it’s safe to say that they were greatly exaggerating when they said that you were going to be ripped apart.” 

“Those cops are idiots who worry too much.” Was Edward’s response. 

Again Gordon ignored what Edward said and instead asked “So how did the conversation go?”

Edward stood up a bit straighter as he said “It went pretty well. He wants Nora in the room with him.”

“He knows that if we did have Nora in there with him he would be under heavy guard during his whole stay here, right?” Gordon asked. 

“He’s resigned to that fact.” Edward answered. 

Gordon let out a soft sigh before he said “I suppose we can allow it. He’s going to be transferred over to Gotham General anyway so it won’t be an arraignment that we have to deal with for long.”

“Victor also wants his wife transferred over to Gotham General.” 

“Of course he does. I’ll get everything set up.” Gordon said with a sigh.

“You do that. I have paperwork to do so that I can finally get out.” Edward said as he brushed past Gordon.

“That eager to get home and get some sleep?” Gordon asked as he watched Edward walk down the hall. 

“Something like that.” Edward said out loud as he continued walking. 

Edward was more than ready to get some sleep, but there was something that he had to do before he could get some much needed shuteye. Edward had to drop by Wayne Manor first. Edward needed to talk to Bruce Wayne about Batman, and he couldn’t get any rest until he did just that…. 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Edward couldn’t help but stare at Wayne Manor as he slowly pulled up into its circular driveway. The building was absolutely massive. The place looked like a strange combination of a mansion and a Gothic cathedral. Edward parked his car, grabbed his folder full of notes that he wanted to show Wayne, and stepped out of his car only to just stand there beside his car to stare at the mansion some more. He had seen the mansion on television and in magazines before, but those pictures and videos did a poor job in displaying just how grand the place was. It was a majestic place, but at the same time it had a creepy almost unwelcoming feeling to it.

Whoever designed the place seemed to have a lot of love for gargoyles because everywhere Edward looked he would see at least one gargoyle glaring right back at him. Gargoyles clung to the rooftops, and they peered down from their perches like watchful guardians of the manor. It was a little hard to see, but even the drain pipes had been made in such a way so that the spots where the water was drained away looked like gargoyles. Hell, even the water fountain in front of the manor fit in with the mansion. Instead of using fish, mermaids, or any other thing that was normally seen in fountains this one had dragon like gargoyles. Gotham was sort of known for its Gothic architecture and having gargoyles all over the place, but Edward thought there was a possibly that the manor had more gargoyles then all of Gotham.

Edward moved his gaze away from the manor and over at the group of construction workers working on fixing the damage that Victor and Penguin had done to the ancient building. The whole area was crawling with workers fixing the damage done to the place. Trucks carrying away debris rumbled down the road so they could dump their trash at the faraway Gotham dump while trucks carrying supplies roared past him as they raced toward the workers who were trying to patch up the hole that had been made in the wall of the ballroom. 

Edward turned his gaze away from the workers and looked at the front door. Edward took in a deep breath before he started walking toward the door. He rang the doorbell and waited for someone to answer. He didn’t have to wait long. One minute after he rang the doorbell the butler answered the doorbell. Edward recognized the man as the butler that he guided around the manor last night. Edward supposed he shouldn’t have been surprised to see the man. It’s not like there was anyone else who could answer the door. From what Edward understood other than the butler there was no other servants employed to the Wayne family. 

The butler looked all prim and proper. His suit was clean and freshly ironed, his white gloves absent of any grim, and if the man had received any injuries last night Edward sure as heck couldn’t see any. It was almost easy to forget that this man had to deal with a manor attack last night.

“Oh, Mister Nashton. Can I help you?” The butler asked. 

For a brief second Edward wounded how he knew his name only to mentally smack himself when he remembered that he was still wearing his name tag.

 _‘God, I must be tired if I forgot that.’_ Edward thought. 

He was exhausted, but Edward ignored it for now. He could get some much needed sleep after he was done here. 

“Please call me Edward. Is Mister Wayne home? I need to talk to him about Batman.” 

The butler’s eyes widened a bit at the mention of Batman, but before Edward could even ponder why the butler said “I’m sorry sir, but I don’t think Master Wayne will be taking any visitors. He is still recovering from the events of last night.”

Edward was about to ask the butler if he could at least ask Wayne to talk to him, but before he could utter a word he heard someone from inside the manor call out to the butler. 

“Alfred, who is it?”

The butler opened the door up just enough that Edward could see Bruce Wayne approaching them. The man looked pretty good for a man whose manor just got attacked. He was wearing dress pants and a fine button down shirt that probably cost more than Edward’s monthly grocery bill. He looked tired, but an easygoing smile that made most people swoon was perfectly in place. His hair was perfectly combed and he looked every bit like the handsome bachelor that the Gotham gossip channels made him out to be. 

“It’s an Edward Nashton, sir. He wants to talk to you about Batman.” Alfred answered. 

Edward couldn’t help but mentally cringe a bit at hearing the butler use his last name again. He always cringed a bit when he heard his last name. Edward always hated his last name, and he had been meaning to change it but he never knew what to change it to. Not helping matters was the fact that he was too busy to really take the time to get the name changing process done. Edward shook his head a bit to rid himself of such thoughts. Now wasn’t the time to get hung up on his last name. Now was the time to talk about Batman. Edward noticed that Bruce’s smile grew a tiny bit smaller upon hearing Batman’s name, but for what reason Edward didn’t know. 

As Bruce approached Edward he said “Mister Nashton I really don’t know why you would want to talk about Batman with me.” 

The man glanced at Edward’s police station name tag that hung around his neck as he said “I also don’t know why a man who works in the cybercrime division would be asking around about Batman.” 

“Please call me Edward.” Edward said. “Also, this has nothing to do with my job. I’m wish to talk to you about Batman because I want to confirm a little theory of mine.” 

Bruce’s smile grew even smaller as he said “A theory, huh?” 

Edward glanced around just to see who was around to hear what he said. The construction workers were so far away that they were almost small dots on the horizon, and the trucks that were driving into and out of the manor grounds were far enough away that Edward had no worries about the drivers hearing him. The butler was still here, but he was standing just far enough away from Bruce now that if Edward kept his voice down he shouldn't hear what he said. While the trucks and construction workers were far enough away from them that they couldn't hear a word that Edward said the construction noises were loud enough that you could not hear them no matter where you were. It was annoying, but right now the noises would be useful to keep anyone from having an easy time hearing him.

Edward nodded as he said as quietly as possible “Yes, I believe that you and Batman are connected. Please, can we talk about this in a more private place?”

Bruce’s smile was completely gone now, and the man was just staring at Edward. The man’s icy blue eyes seemed to bore right into Edward, and Edward couldn’t help but feel a small shiver travel down his spine. Bruce’s gaze was intense, and he felt vaguely uncomfortable from having the man stand there and study him with such intensity. Even his face had a stern almost scary look to it. It wasn't a look that a easygoing rich playboy should be able to make.

After about a good three award minutes had passed Bruce gave Edward a crooked smile as he said “Alright, I’ll humor you.” 

Edward smiled a little upon hearing that. Well, he got his chance to talk to Bruce. He just hoped that the conversation would go well, and that his theory about Batman will turn out to be correct….

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> H.P. Lovecraft and Arkham: Alright, in the real world Arkham Asylum was named after the Arkham from H.P. Lovecraft's books. However, in the Arkham universe H.P. Lovecraft could have got his inspiration for Arkham from Arkham Asylum and the Arkham family. I say this because I'm pretty sure that Arkham Asylum became a thing in the early 1900's, and the Arkham family could have existed for even longer then that.
> 
> In H.P. Lovecraft's books Arkham first appeared in the story 'The Picture in the House'. That story came out in 1920 which gives us a big enough time frame in the Arkham verse for H.P. Lovecraft to hear about Arkham Asylum and the Arkham family and decide to name a place in his books after it.


	8. I got a theory about you

While the Wayne Manor’s outside may have looked a bit unwelcoming the inside was a different story. The large windows allowed sunlight to shine into the house, and the crystal chandeliers overhead shimmered with a warm glow. There wasn’t a dark corner anywhere in the house Most of the rugs and future were nice earthly colors that looked nice in the brightly lit house. Vases filled to the brim with brightly colored flowers could be found on every table that they passed by. It was warm in the house, but not too warm. All in all the house was a warm bright welcoming place. It was a complete opposite of the dark almost gloomy looking outside.

Edward was a little surprised. Sure, he had seen the inside of the place on the security cameras but that didn’t let him see just how nice the place was. The places he saw on the cameras were rooms that had already been ripped apart by Penguin’s goons, or were dusty storage rooms that were not exactly meant to look nice. This was the first time that Edward was able to see the manor in all of its glory. It was nice. Still, for as homelike as the manor was it also had a sort of museum feel to it too. Antiques that the Wayne family had collected over the years were displayed almost everywhere. An old set of plate armor that had to be from the 1500’s stood tall and proud in a sitting room that they passed by. A renaissance painting of a woman dressed in all her finery was proudly displayed on the wall of the halls along with paintings from various other ages. A sculpture of a dyad done by a rather famous local artist from Gotham stared at Edward from its place down the hall while he walked by. 

Edward wished he had the time to stop and examine a few of the more interesting pieces that Bruce had, but he could only look at the things for a few seconds at most before he had to scurry along. Besides the rather large collection of priceless paintings that covered the walls the halls were also decorated with pictures of Bruce Wayne’s ancestors. Their names were engraved onto the frames that contained their pictures. Edward couldn’t help but take note of the fact that they were all rather stern faced, and a majority of them had icy blue eyes that could pierce you to the very core. It looked like blue eyes ran in the Wayne family. Eventually after walking for a good five minutes or so Bruce ushered him into what seemed to be Bruce Wayne’s office. 

As Bruce went to go sit down in the plush leather chair that was behind the large ornately designed mahogany desk Edward took the time to examine his surroundings. The room wasn’t as brightly lit as the rest of the manor, but it was still rather cozy. The left side wall was lined with bookshelves. On the shelves were a mixture of books that were the latest best sellers while others were serious books covering a wide range of subjects. Some of the books were medical journals which made some sense to Edward due to the fact that Bruce’s father had been a doctor of note back when he was alive. The few books on running a business was also expected. However, the rather large collection of books on criminology was a bit unexpected. 

Considering Edward’s running theory on Bruce maybe seeing the books shouldn’t have been that surprising. For now, Edward didn’t comment on it. He just made a mental note of it and then proceeded to check out the rest of the room. On the right side of the room a large grandfather clock quietly ticked away. The clock was elegantly simple so Edward didn’t spend much time examining that. Near it was a large hand carved marble fireplace, and while it was nice the only thing that Edward really took note of was the fact that it had carved lion statues instead of gargoyles like he expected. Really the thing that truly captured Edward’s attention was the large painting hanging over the fireplace.

The painting was that of a man, woman, and child. The woman was sitting in a chair her hands perfectly folded on her lap while her long dark black hair was carefully tied back into a ponytail. Her ruby red lips were turned up into a bright warm smile while her blue eyes seemed to shine with mirth. The man that was standing next to the chair was standing tall and proud. He looked like a kind of guy who could be intimidating if he wanted to be, but the large cheery grin that he was currently wearing made him look like a happy man who couldn’t harm a fly. The boy that was standing in front of the man looked just as cheerful. His smile was a carbon copy of the man’s smile. His bright blue eyes were almost an exact copy of the woman’s eyes. They both had eyes that made Edward think of a clear blue summer sky.

Edward about jumped out of his skin when he heard Bruce say “A painting of my parents and I. My father had it commissioned shortly after my seventh birthday.”

Edward turned to look over at Bruce. The man had his hands clasped together on the desk and a blank look on his face. Standing next to where Bruce was sitting was the butler who was looking rather emotionless. Edward hadn’t even noticed that the butler had followed them into the office. 

Edward hesitated for a moment before he said “They look like they were kind people.”

“They were.” Bruce said.

There was a hint of sadness in Bruce’s voice that was rather noticeable. Edward didn’t comment on it. He honestly didn’t know what else to say about it. He didn’t think Bruce wanted his sympathies. Edward had never lost a loved one to death, so he couldn’t even imagine how painful it was. At any rate it probably wasn’t a subject that the man wanted to dwell on. Saying sorry felt like it would just be an unwanted gesture. It's not like sorry would somehow get rid of the pain, or magically bring Bruce's parents back.

Edward quickly changed the subject by asking “Are you sure you want your butler here to hear this conversation? What I’m about to tell you might be best kept between the two of us.”

“Whatever your about to tell me can be told in front of Alfred.” Bruce said without a moment of hesitation.

Alfred says nothing upon hearing this. He doesn’t even glance over at Bruce. The butler just calmly stared at Edward with a blank expression on his face. Edward stared at the two men for a few seconds before he shrugged.

“Alright it’s your funeral.” Edward said with a shrug.

If Bruce was going to be so insistent that his butler hear this Edward was not going to stop him. Besides he had a feeling that the butler was in on what Edward was about to say anyway, so it probably didn’t matter if he was here for this or not.

Edward stared at Bruce as he said “I believe you and Batman are the same person.”

When Edward said this he expected Bruce to laugh in disbelief. He expected the man to immediately declare that he was not Batman. He expected the man to say that he was crazy for thinking that he could ever be Batman, or that the thought of him being Batman was the best joke that he had ever heard. However, that was not what happened. Instead the man stayed silent. Bruce didn’t even crack a smile. He just stared at Edward with a serious expression on his face. Even his butler stared at him with the grim expression on his face. Edward didn’t know what was stranger the fact that Bruce didn’t laugh or that a butler didn’t seem surprised to hear Edward accuse Bruce being Batman. It was dead silent in the room. Edward was unsure if he should continue with what he was saying, or if he should wait for them to say something. Bruce ended up saying something before he could continue.

“Why would you ever think I was Batman?” Bruce asked in curiosity.

He didn’t seem upset by what Edward said. He sounded like he was generally curious to know why Edward thought he was Batman. Edward cleared his throat to prepare himself for this explanation. It was going to be a long explanation. Edward opened his folder and pulled out a picture. He placed the picture on the desk in so that Bruce and his butler could look at it. The picture was a black-and-white photo taken from a security camera from one of the shops in the Bowery area of the city. In the picture was the slightly fuzzy form of Batman. While not the best photo it was a pretty good image of Batman, and until the news broadcast of the fight on a hotel roof on Christmas Eve had happened it was one of the few images of him that actually existed.

From what Edward could remember the picture was taken during a robbery of the pawn shop. Batman appeared in the footage for the briefest of seconds, but he was on a footage long enough for one of the police officers to spot him when he was going over the footage of the robbery. The image was saved and put in police files as proof that that Batman may be more than just a myth. Since Edward worked for the GCPD it was easy for him to get a copy of the photo for his file. Besides being proof that Batman existed it also gave Edward an idea of how tall Batman was. In the photo next to the door was a colored height indicator. It was usually use tell how tall any criminal that came into the shop was, but in this case Edward could use it to get a rough estimate as to how tall the Batman was.

“How tall do you think the Batman is?” Edward asked.

“Well, if the colored height indicator in this picture is anything to go by I would say around 6 feet give or take a few inches.” Bruce said without looking up from the photo.

Bruce sounded calm and relaxed when he said that, but his face didn’t match the tone of his voice. He looked as serious as ever, and maybe this is just Edward’s imagination but the man looked like he wanted to rip the photo up. Not that Edward could blame him. While the photo was not the best in giving you a great idea on exactly how tall Batman was it did give you a rough estimate. While knowing Batman’s height was not that big of a deal to most for someone who probably wanted people to know as little as him as possible this bit of info is something that they would not want their enemies to know. Knowing even a little bit of information about the Batman would help somebody figure out who he was. After all it is the small pieces of info that helped make the bigger picture that was Batman. It was like a puzzle really. The more pieces you had the more of the picture you can put together. So the more info you had on Batman the more clues you had to figure out who he was.

“While I can’t pinpoint his exact weight and few of the boys in blue have figured he must weigh around 200 pounds or so.” Edward said. 

Edward reached into his folder once again and pulled out a magazine clipping. He placed the magazine clipping down on top of the photo on the desk and let Bruce get a nice long look at it. The magazine clipping was from some old gossip magazine. The magazine itself wasn’t all that great, but the last page of it was important. On the last page they usually have a list of facts about whatever celebrity they happen to interview and in said magazine. Usually the facts were just stupid little bits of information like what the famous person’s favorite movie was or what they never left home without. Normally not something Edward would be interested in, but this article Edward is interested in. This article was about Bruce Wayne. Most of the things in the article aren’t that interesting or useful. The article was filled with simple things like Bruce Wayne’s favorite movie was the Mark of Zorro and that he had loved the Grey Ghost when he was a child.

Again nothing special, but there was one bit of information that stuck out. On the list was Bruce Wayne’s weight and height, and surprisingly enough Bruce Wayne was six feet and two inches tall and he weighed 210 pounds. This meant that Bruce Wayne had the right body type to be Batman. Heck, he was even built the same way as Batman. The bat suit didn’t exactly leave much to the imagination, so it was easy to get an idea what about his body build was like. Edward reached out to move the magazine clipping over a little so that it would be side-by-side to the photo. On the magazine clipping was a full body picture of Bruce Wayne smiling up at them. When compared to the Batman photo it was easy to tell that they had the same body type. Not quite a bodybuilder type look, but a muscular look to be sure.

“Seems even Batman have the same weight and height.” Said Edward. “You compare the pictures it looks that have this same body build too.”

“Sure, but there are plenty of men Gotham city that are that weight and height. This doesn’t mean anything.” Bruce said as he looked up at Edward.

“Oh, I agree this alone doesn’t prove anything. However, when added on to the other bits of information that I have I think it starts to prove that my theory could be more than just a theory.” Edward smirked as he said “However, before I get to my other bits of info I should probably mention that people who have seen Batman face to face have said that he has blue eyes. You can just chalk that up as another similarity between you two.”

Bruce said nothing to that. He just stared at Edward with his icy blue eyes. Edward has seen Batman enough just by working with him to see that he and Bruce had the same eye exact eye color. Bruce had a rather striking pair of blue eyes, and with Batman’s mostly black costume made his eyes stick out like a sore thumb.

Edward smiled a bit as he asked “Are you aware of Batman’s Batwing?”

Bruce seemed to cringe slightly at the mention of the Batwing. It was like just hearing its name brought up a bad memory. Edward was unsure as to why. There was a story here, but it wasn’t a story that he would get to hear. At least he wouldn’t be hearing it now at any rate. For now, he would just take note of it and bring it up at a later date. 

“I have heard of it. Thinks to the events of Christmas Eve most people have seen it too.” Bruce said as he frowned.

“How much do you think that thing would cost?” Asked Edward. 

“A lot of money I imagine.” Bruce said in an even tone of voice. 

“Try 60 million at most. We have a few fuzzy images of the plane that had been taken on Christmas Eve, and while not the best photos they give us a clear enough image to let us know that the plane looks rather similar to the US Marines B-1939 Osprey and that thing costs around 60 million dollars.” Edward said as he placed his free hand on his hip. “Not exactly something that any ordinary citizen could afford.”

“No, that wouldn’t be something that anyone could afford.” Bruce agreed. 

"Well, you could easily afford at least three of them." Edward pointed out with a smirk.

Bruce's hard stare and lack of replay caused his smile to fade a little. He was hoping for more of a reaction to that. With a sigh and a shrug he decided to just move on.

“Well, let's talk about his gadgets shall we? Those things would not cheap either nor would they be easily created.” Edward said. “For example let’s talk about one gadget that I know he has. It’s a type of explosive gel. Rather inventive really it’s strong enough to take down a wall, but week enough to not kill anyone if they happen to be in the blast zone. It also only explodes when the Bat wants it to.”

“Sounds like useful stuff.” Bruce commented.

“Indeed. Do you think if we checked the areas where it was used we might find some left behind residue? Do you think if we tested said residue we would find out that it shares similar properties with anything being developed in the Wayne Tech labs?” Edward asked in an almost innocent sounding tone. 

Bruce didn’t comment on that. Edward truly didn’t expect him to.

Edward tilted his head slightly to the side as he asked “Heck, what about the plane that Batman uses? Your company designs planes for the government. Think we might find some similarities between the Bat’s plane and the planes that your company has made in the past?” 

A small scowl appeared on Bruce’s face once he heard what Edward said, but it vanished as fast as it appeared. In some strange way Edward felt like he was poking a sleeping bear. That if he wasn't careful Bruce would snap and toss him out of the building. Deep down Edward didn't think Bruce would do that. He was sure that Bruce would at least listen to everything that he had to say before he finally flung Edward out of the manor and told the man to never come back. However, until that happened Edward was going to enjoy the time where he could at least feel like he was truly onto something here while it lasted.

Edward just smirked as he said “If we kept real close eye on the gadgets that Batman uses I think we would eventually find some connection between the gadgets and the technology that your company makes.” 

Bruce’s frown seemed to grow a bit grimmer, but yet again he stayed silent. Bruce was for the most part being rather quiet. Little surprising really. Edward had expected Bruce to argue with him a bit more, or to interrupt him after every other spoken sentence. This silence was unexpected, and Edward didn’t know if he should be grateful for it or if he should be a bit disappointed that the man wasn’t arguing much with him. 

Edward ignored his conflicted emotions as he said “Can’t imagine how expensive it is to make those gadgets, or how much it costs to keep them in tiptop shape. Like for example the batarangs themselves aren’t anything special. Get a sheet of metal and the right tools and you can make your own easily enough. However, considering how many of those things Batman goes through he has to make a lot and the money he would have to spend to make enough of those things would add up. I don’t even want to think about how much money it would cost to replace one of his grappling hook launchers if it ever broke. The thing has to be strong enough to lift a 200-pound man with ease. Making something like that isn’t cheap.”

Edward reached into his folder and pulled out a few sheets of paper as he said “Honestly, I could go on about how expensive it would be to be Batman, but I think you get the picture. Instead let’s move on to the events of the New Year’s Eve party that was held here in your manor.”

As Edward placed the papers down on the desk Bruce asked “What are these?”

“Copies of the statements made by the people who attended your party. There were a lot of statements, but the ones here are the most important.”

Bruce picked the papers up and glanced over them. The names of the witness were written at the top of the papers, and Edward could recite each name with ease. Vicki Vale, Augustus Sinclair, Mark Meltzer, and Brigid Tenenbaum were just a few of the names that Edward could think of off the top of his head. They were all people that Edward helped lead out of the mansion, but more importantly they were all people who saw the Batman show up and saw Bruce Wayne disappear without a trace.

As Bruce skimmed the pages Edward commented “When I looked over their statements I ended up with quite a few questions.”

Bruce glanced up at Edward just long enough to ask “What kind of questions?”

“I guess my first would be how did Batman respond to the attack so fast?” 

The butler’s stoic mask cracked slightly when he heard Edward say that. The man had been silent and void of any emotion up until now, so seeing that hint of worry on his face for the briefest of seconds was enough to make Edward feel energized. To him it seemed to confirm that Edward was at least on to something here. If Bruce wasn’t Batman why would the butler look so worried?

Edward shook that thought away as he said “He couldn’t have heard about it from the police. The cops didn’t even get the call about the attack until it was pretty much over and Batman was in Gothcorp hunting down Penguin and Freeze. We didn’t even learn about a Mister Freeze even existing until the day of the New Year’s Eve attack and riots. We knew very little, and by the time we had all of the info it was all over.”

Edward couldn’t help but feel a bit of shame upon admitting that. He should have monitored Penguin more closely, but he hadn’t and that allowed Penguin to launch an attack on Wayne Manor. Edward had let it slip a bit because he was so wrapped up in actually starting up this partnership thing with Batman, and he had been busy with other smaller cases that demanded his attention. Also, it helped that Penguin didn’t keep any of the info about the attack on his computers. What little info that there was on the attack was kept on paper and what little info that were on the flash drives collected by the police were pretty sparse in the information department. The info there was so vague that other than getting a list of names for people who were supposed to accompany Mister Freeze they had nothing.

Penguin didn’t even keep any info on the attacks on any of his personal computers. The only thing on those computers were some floor plans for a new ship that Penguin was going to buy, a list of men that Penguin was going to promote, some résumés from people wanting to work in his unfortunately legal casino that was on his ship, and a list of rather mundane supplies that the ship needed. Last Edward checked buying alcohol by the truckload wasn’t illegal so it wasn’t like he could pin anything on the Penguin. 

Technology wise there really wasn’t much he could do, but the whole thing still bugged Edward anyway. He could have monitored Penguin more closely. If he had maybe he could have gotten some audio evidence of Penguin’s plan. Edward shook his head and cut his thoughts off before he could go any farther down that rabbit hole. Thinking of it just made him angry, and working himself into a rage wouldn’t be productive in any way. It was over now so dwelling on it any longer would be a waste of time.

“What about Penguin’s thugs? Surely Batman could have gotten info from them.” The butler said.

Edward was a little surprised to hear the man speak, but once he got over his surprise he just shook his head.

“Most of the low level thugs who were involved knew nothing. The men participating in the riots only knew that they had to create enough trouble to keep the police busy and that was it. As for the men who attacked the manor they only found out the details as to what they were going to be doing there on the trip to the manor. The high level men knew what was going on, but interviews with them reveled that none of them had been integrated by Batman. As far as I can tell it looks like Batman was as clueless as the rest of us where when it comes to the manor attack.” 

Edward placed his free hand on his hip as he said “I should also point out that no one spotted Batman approaching the manor in any way. No one spotted the Batwing arriving at the manor, but a few people did spot the plane leave the area. That thing is fast, but it’s not what I call stealthy. It can’t be followed, but it can sure as hell be spotted. Yet, people only spotted it leaving not coming in.”

“It could have been missed. That night was rather hectic.” Alfred argued. 

“It’s possible, but the few Penguin men that were stationed outside the manor swore they kept in eye out and that they never saw the plane.” Edward said. “They never saw Batman enter either.”

“They could have missed him. Batman is rather stealthy isn’t he?” Bruce pointed out.

“True, but if my theory is correct I believe stealth was unneeded here. I believe that Batman was attending the party in the manor which is why he was so quick to respond to the attack. Batman showed up at the scene about five minutes after the attack happened give or take a minute or two. The manor is a good thirty-minute drive from the city. The plane could probably cut that time in half, but again it was never spotted and while it’s fast it’s not fast enough for Batman to respond with such great timing. There is no way the man could have been able to react to the event so fast unless he was already here.”

“And by already here you mean he was hosting the party.” Bruce said.

“Exactly, it’s your house so you would be the one who would know how to get around here as fast as possible. I don’t have access to any floor plans of this place, but the plans from the remolding done in the 1920’s revel that there are secret passage ways all over the place. There have been more remodels since that time so I can only imagine that more secret passageways have been added by now, and a few may have been taken out. Being a member of the Wayne family you would have knowledge on all of secret passageways in the manor.” Edward pointed out

Edward then frowned at Bruce as he said “It would be easy for you to store the Bat suit somewhere and slip it on when needed. Not only that, but I have witness that say that they saw leave and never return. Soon after you disappear Batman shows up out of the blue to save the day. One hell of a coincidence.”

“Alfred was interviewed by the police and he already explained to your group that Penguin’s thugs had caught me, beat me up a bit, and tossed me into a closet. He found me and freed me from the locked closet only after everyone else had evacuated. You should have that in your reports.” Bruce said with a frown.

“Yeah, and I’m saying it’s a lie!” Edward snapped. “Oswald Cobblepot hates your family. If one of his thugs was lucky enough to get a hold of you they would have delivered you to him on a silver platter so that he can beat you with brass knuckles, kill you, or do whatever the hell it is that he wants to do to you.”

Edward closed his eyes and took in a quick breath to calm himself down. If this man truly expected him to believe that then he must have thought Edward was an idiot. That thought made Edward’s temper flair up a bit, but he did his best to calm his rage down. Getting angry wouldn’t help at all. Edward opened his eyes and stared right into Bruce’s eyes.

Without breaking eye contact Edward said “Find Brigid Tenenbaum’s interview, and look for the bit where she mentions what the butler said to Bruce before he disappeared.” 

Bruce must have had the paper in view because he was rather quick to put the other papers down onto the desk until he was only holding one paper in his hand. When Bruce’s frown grew a bit bigger Edward assumed that meant he found the bit that Edward wanted him to find. 

“Brigid overheard your butler telling you that you should look for an item down in the wine cellar. She and the rest of the police force assumed it was an emergency line to use to contact the police.” Edward said as he glanced over at the butler. “That’s what you guys said it was, and while you do have something like that in the house I don’t think that’s what you went down there to do. I think you went down there to get the Batsuit.”

The butler looked tense now, and even Bruce seemed a bit tense. Edward just knew he was on the right track here.

“It would be a pretty great place to store something. I know for a fact that there are a bunch of cave systems under the manor’s grounds. Great place to store a Batplane, and the wine cellar would be a good place to have a way to get into the caves since it’s underground.” Edward tilted his head to the side in thought as he asked “If the police searched every known cave system that was on your property think we would find anything Batman related?” 

Silence was the only answer that Edward got. Edward let Bruce stew a bit in his thoughts for a few minutes before he finally started talking again.

“Should I keep going, or is this all enough for you to finally confess to all your nighttime activities?” Edward asked. “I still haven’t gone over how odd it is that Batman shows up in the city only a month after you return from your long absence from the city.”

Edward also had a few other things that he could mention, but honestly he had already laid most of his concerns out on the table. What he had left were just smaller idiosyncrasies that would have been circumstantial at best and just strange coincidences at worst. Also, truthfully Edward just wanted to get this over with already. He was tired and he felt like he would just crash and fall asleep right where he was standing any second now. It would have been smarter of him to do this after he got some sleep, but he was so ready to just confront Bruce with what he had that he just couldn’t wait. 

Chances were high that Bruce would still reject Edward’s theory and act like he was just a crazy conspiracy theorist, but at this point Edward almost didn’t care. Yeah, he would be mad to be brushed off like that but at this point he was totally sold on Bruce being Batman. The facts added up to Edward at least. Really this was just a way to let Bruce know that Edward knew who he was. Batman knew who he was so it seemed only fair. 

A darker part of Edward also wanted Bruce to know that he knew he was Batman just so that Bruce would know that if he ever got the bright idea to try and reveal Edward’s identity Edward could turn around and revel Batman’s identity in return. Right now he and Batman were working pretty well together so Edward didn’t think that situation would ever happen, but it was good to have insurance. Edward was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Bruce sigh.

“You don’t have to go on I think we get the picture.” Bruce said with a sigh.

The man was silent for a moment before he said “Alright.”

The butler looked a bit concerned upon hearing that.

“Sir…?” The man said slowly. 

The two men exchanged a look that Edward couldn’t even begin to decipher. 

“Alfred he isn’t going to give this up. He knows, and denying isn’t going to help us.” Bruce said. “If this partnership is going to be permanent we might as well be honest. You are always telling me we need more allies in this fight, and Edward is just the ally we need.”

Alfred just sighed before he nodded in understanding.

Upon getting the man's approval Bruce turned his attention back onto Edward and said “Yes, I’m Batman.”

Edward felt his shoulders slump in relief. It was good that Bruce admitted to it after hearing all of Edward’s evidence. He wasn’t exactly expecting that result, but it was relieving to get it. Edward waited for Bruce to say something else, but instead of saying something Bruce did something totally different. 

As if to prove that he was truly Batman Bruce reached into his pocket and pulled out a batarang to Edward. As far as Edward could tell it was the real deal. Batman was still too new to the scene for anyone to have been able to make any realistic copies of Batman's gadgets. Hell, until the New Years Eve broadcast most people didn't even know he existed much less what he carried with him. So seeing the batarang right now truly showed Edward that this was indeed the Bat, and that the Bat was trusting him enough to truly confirm his theory with more then just words.

"You always carry those things around with you?" Edward asked.

"No, I was making a batch of them when you dropped by for a visit. Slid a few into my pocket before I came out to investigate." Bruce explained as he slid the weapon back into his pocket.

The man hesitated for a moment before he added "After everything that has happened recently I felt like I needed to have a few on hand."

Edward gave the man a look full of curiosity as he asked "The events from New Year's Eve still have you on edge?"

"Yes, that and one other event." Bruce said slowly.

Edward just raised a single brow in interest as he gave Bruce a look that seemed to say _'Well, are you going to tell me about it?'_

Upon seeing the look Bruce just shook his head and said "I'll tell you about it later."

Edward was a bit disappointed that he wouldn't be getting details now, but he could wait. Patience is a virtue that he had gained mastery over rather early in his life. He didn't particularly like being patient, but he could wait. 

Bruce shook his head as if to rid himself of bad thoughts and said “Anyway, changing the subject now I have to ask. Why did you decide to confront me with this?”

Edward didn’t have to think at all to answer that question.

“Three reasons really. I wanted us to be on even ground, I wanted you to know that I know who you are, and I guess I just wanted to hear you verbally confirm my theory.”

“Why not ask me as Batman?”

“When would I find the time to dump all of this info on you as Batman? We are usually too busy taking down thugs or trying to catch a man with a freeze gun. Not exactly a great time to dump my theory on you.”

Bruce thought for a moment before he said “Fair enough, but I’m still surprised you brought it up to me like this.”

“It’s not like it would hurt me. At worst you would just say I was crazy and kick me out of the manor. As for investigating it at all I do work with the GCPD, so me asking around about him isn’t that unexpected.” Edward said with a shrug of his own.

Bruce thought for a moment before he asked “Well, now what?”

To this Edward shrugged. He hadn’t actually planed for anything beyond this.

"I don't know. I didn't think things would go this well, so I didn't really plan much beyond being prepared for you to call me crazy and kick me out of your manor." Edward confessed.

Bruce seemed a bit amused upon hearing that. Edward couldn't even bring himself to be a bit annoyed at the thought of Bruce being amused by it all. He would probably be a bit amused too if the roles were reversed. 

Bruce smiled a little before he asked “How tired are you?” 

“I’m exhausted. It’s honestly surprising that I haven’t collapsed right here and now.” Edward confessed. 

Bruce nodded before he said “Alright, go home and get some rest. Come back here at five in the afternoon today.” 

Edward gave Bruce a confused look while Bruce just offered the man a faint smile.

“Since we are making this an even partnership I might as well show you the Batcave. We need to get it back into shape anyway.” 

_‘Get it back into shape?’_ Edward thought in confusion.

He thought about asking, but in the end he ended up asking “You actually named the place where you keep your Batman gear the Batcave?”

“Had to call it something. Trust me when I say that the name is the best fit for the place.” Bruce said with a shrug. “So are you coming?”

“Yeah, I can help. I want to see this Batcave with my own eyes anyway.” Edward said.

Bruce nodded before he asked “Can I have your folder of evidence?”

“Why?”

“I need to go over it. By studying it I can learn what I need to do to keep people from connecting the dots like you did.” Bruce explained. 

Edward thought for a moment before he nodded. He had a copy of the folder back at his home, so giving Bruce the one that he had with him wouldn’t be a big deal. Edward silently handed the folder over to Bruce. 

Bruce smiled once he had the folder in hand and said “Thank you Edward.” 

The man then looked over at Alfred and asked the man “Can you guide Edward back out to his car?”

Alfred nodded before he started to walk toward the door.

“Come along Master Edward. I’ll guide you back out of the mansion.” 

Edward felt a bit odd at being called Master Edward, but he ignored the strange feeling for now.

Instead he looked over at Bruce and said “Well, goodbye for now Bruce.” 

Edward suddenly started to smile as he said “Or should I say goodbye Batman?” 

Bruce’s smile a bit bigger as he said “It’s just Bruce out of the mask Riddler.”

“And its just Edward when I’m not disguising my voice.” Edward commented as he turned to follow the butler out the door. 

Bruce watched him go with a smile, but he couldn’t help but frown once he was gone. If Edward was able to figure out who Bruce was with that much ease anyone who was just as determined and also had the right connections would be able to do the same. He was going to have to fix that. However, besides that Bruce was also taking a big risk with Edward by making him an equal partner so soon in this whole vigilante thing. He was taking a gamble here with the hopes that Edward could become one of his greatest allies both as an alley on the field and as in alley in the police force. If all went well Edward could be invaluable, but if it went badly Batman wouldn’t last in Gotham. Bruce really hoped that this would go well and that he wouldn’t grow to regret letting Edward in so fast…..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, so this is a pretty dialogue heavy. Anyway, info time!
> 
> Item in the wine cellar: In the DLC ‘Cold, Cold Heart’ Alfred says “With these guests about, perhaps you should look for that…. Item in the wine cellar.” He says this while you’re just walking around in the lobby where everyone has gone to hide. So it’s not like he’s whispering this to you. I think most guests would miss it because they are too busy panicking, listening for thugs coming their way, and talking to each other. However, I’m pretty sure at least one person would hear it and considering the fact that as far as they know Bruce pretty much vanishes after that I’m pretty sure someone would make a note on that.
> 
> Batwing, Wayne Tech making planes, and US Marines B-1939: Alright, so I don’t know how much the Batplane in the game is but I do have a general idea of what it costs in the Dark Knight. According to a source that I found the closest thing that resembles the Batwing (in the movie) is US Marines V-22 Osprey. They say thing costs about $60,000,000. So that’s why I chose the price.
> 
> As for US Marines B-1939 that’s me sticking in a reference to Batman. The B being Batman and 1939 being the year that Batman came into existence. 
> 
> Also, going off of the Animated Series episode (Blind as a Bat) his company does make planes for the government which is why I brought it up here.
> 
> Batman's height and weight: It's what is on his profile in game. Since Bruce is a Gotham celebrity I would think he measurements would probably be out there in some way either in a magazine or on the internet. So not info that would be hard to get. 
> 
> Augustus Sinclair, Brigid Tenenbaum, and Mark Meltzer: These are all names of characters from the Bioshock series. No real reason they are here I just added them in for fun.


	9. Batsuits and secrets

By the time that Edward returned to the manor at five in the afternoon construction work had been completed. The trucks and workers were long gone, so it was pretty silent at the manor now. It was a little eerie if Edward was being honest. For as warm and homely as it was on the inside on the outside it felt rather unwelcoming. The few gargoyles that were on the roof seemed to glare down at him, and the cawing of the crows in the trees just seemed to help set the unwelcoming atmosphere that the place had.

 _‘Would really hate to see this place at the dead of night.’_ Edward thought as he walked toward the front door. 

He rang the doorbell and within a matter of seconds the butler was opining the door.

“Good evening Master Edward.” The man said as Edward stepped inside.

“Good evening.” Edward murmured all while being grateful that Alfred didn’t call him by his last name.

Edward couldn’t help but think that the butler had answered the door rather fast. It made him wonder if butler had just been waiting there at the door for his arrival. He allowed that thought to drop as he glanced around at the entrance. He didn’t see Bruce anywhere.

“Where is Bruce?” Edward asked as he turned to look at the butler. 

“Master Bruce is in the Batcave.” Alfred answered as he turned to walk down the hall.

Edward didn’t comment on that and instead he just followed the butler deeper into the mansion. They followed the same path that they had walked the last time that Edward had been here, so Edward didn’t see anything new this time. He still looked around the area with curiosity and a bit of wide eyes amazement. Almost everything the manor could have been in a museum. Edward was fascinated by half of the things that Bruce owned. He could probably spend the whole day just listening to the history behind all of the suits of armor that Bruce had dotting the manor. They reached Bruce’s office rather quickly, and once they were in the room the butler made a beeline straight toward the clock. Edward followed behind him slowly and watched as the man adjusted the hands of the clock so that they were pointed as a special time. 

**10:47**

Once the hands of the clock were on that time Edward heard a soft almost inaudible clicking sound that could be compared to a door being opened. Alfred grabbed the clock and slowly pulled it away only to revel a doorway the lead to a set of stairs that went down.

 _‘That time has to be special somehow.’_ Edward thought.

Edward highly doubted that they chose that time at random. It had to have a special meaning to Bruce if they were using it as the passcode to the Batcave. Edward didn’t bother asking about it. He was sure he could figure out on his own with a little bit of digging. Besides he already had a feeling that he knew why the time was special. Edward followed Alfred down the steps, and when they reached the bottom Edward couldn’t help but stare in amazement. They were in the Batcave. Edward was finally in the Bat’s base of operations. He could see small waterfalls rushing away in various areas of the cave, but the sound was thankfully not overwhelming. It was actually sort of soothing. In the distance he could hear the occasionally cry of bats, and the fluttering of their wings could be heard ever so faintly in the air. Sometimes he could see a bat fly deeper into the cave. 

The large area in front of him seemed to be the main area of the cave. It seemed to be the biggest platform, and all of the platforms around the cave that Edward could see seem to connect to the biggest one. The platforms were all connected by metal bridges and steps. Edward could see the Batman’s plane on one platform. It was the first time that Edward had seen it in real life. Until this moment he had only ever seen it in video or in pictures. It was a bit bigger then Edward was expecting. He could also see what looked like a car covered up with tarp. What little Edward could see told him the automobile was probably something special. Edward wasn’t really interested in cars, but he had a desire to see this one. It belonged to the Bat so chances were pretty high that there was probably some technical aspect about it that would catch Edward’s attention.

Although, before Edward investigated the car he really wanted to tinker around with the computer that was on the main platform. The computer was huge and took up half of the platform they were standing on. Edward was practically drooling at the sight of it. The thing definitely looked handmade, but even so it looked like it was built by a pro. Edward could feel his hands twitch in excitement at the very thought of taking the thing apart to see how it ticked, or better yet maybe even using the computer himself. He didn’t dare touch the computer even though he really wanted to. Edward got pretty testy when people touched his laptop or work computer without permission, and he was pretty sure that Bruce would not be all that much different.

Also, like it or not Edward was just a guest here. Bruce could chuck him out of the Batcave if Edward annoyed him enough. Edward had to be on his best behavior here. At any rate the computer was on, but wasn’t displaying anything important. The main monitor had been left on the regular desktop. The monitors around the main one displayed various random things. One was showing the news, and while it had been muted the subtitles were on. They weren’t talking about anything interesting. Currently it just looked like the news casters were discussing the topic of Arkham Asylum being reopened. After the whole Mister Freeze mess people were at least open to the idea of opening Arkham Asylum back up. From what little Edward had been able to hear it sounded like reopening Arkham Asylum was pretty much guaranteed. It was just a question of when it was opening up.

Most of the other monitors were not displaying anything too interesting, but Edward could tell that one of them was turned in to the GCPD’s police scanner. The low murmur of the scanner was just loud enough that Edward could make out everything that was being said. So far it sounded like everything was fine. The most interesting crime going on right now was that the police were breaking up a small fight that had started up between two drunk guys in a bar somewhere. Not exactly something that needed Batman’s attention. Edward turned his gaze away from the computer and looked around a bit more to see if he could spot Bruce.

The butler did say that the man was in there somewhere. So far he couldn’t see him. He could see what looked like a medical station complete with a bed close to where he was standing, and he could see what looked like a lab sort of area. A little farther away Edward could see a platform that looked like a training area, but unlike most of the cave this place was a mess. It looked like it had been hit by a tornado. Broken targets were tossed around everywhere. Rubble covered a vast majority of the area. Some broken pieces of equipment were so shattered that Edward couldn’t even figure out what the broken pieces used to be. 

“What happened over there?” Edward asked as he pointed at the area.

“I think that might be something that you should ask Master Bruce about.” Was the butler’s calm reply. 

The man turned and walked over to a set of stairs that led up to a platform that was overhead.

“He’s up there.” The gray haired man said.

The butler then turned and started to walk over to the wrecked area of the cave. Apparently, this was the end of their interaction for the day. Edward watched him for go for a few seconds before he turned his attention back onto the stairs. Edward walked up the steps and upon reaching the top he saw that this platform seemed to be dedicated to Batman’s suit. A glass case full of different suits was on the left side of the area, and on the right side where shelves filled with everything needed to make a Batman suit. A large table sat smack dab in the middle, and there standing in front of the table was Bruce. Spread out on the table in front of him were papers. It only took a glance at the papers for Edward to see that the papers were from the folder that Edward had given Bruce. Also on the table was Bruce’s regular Batsuit. 

Bruce glanced up from the papers to look at Edward, and the second Edward saw that Bruce was looking at him he asked “So you going to tell me why your training area is wrecked, or am I not supposed to question it?”

Bruce stared at Edward for a moment before he finally sighed. His shoulders slumped a little as he said “The Batcave had been attacked by Bane.”

“The Venom user?” Edward said as he frowned. 

Edward hadn’t gotten a few recordings of him talking to the assassin Shiva. Edward never saw the man face to face. He only knew him by his reputation.

“That’s him. Bane found the cave.” Bruce said.

“How?” Edward asked immediately.

“By doing what you did for months if not a year or so.” Bruce said. “Great, so what you are telling me is that Bane knows who you are and he’s already broken into your little hideout once already. What’s stopping him from breaking into this place again?” Edward asked. “Bane doesn’t remember who I am, or where the cave is. For now, we are safe.” Bruce answered. “Care to explain how the man just conveniently forgot everything?”

“He used a serum called TN-1. One of the side effects of the serum is severe memory loss.” Bruce explained. “He used enough of the stuff during our fight that he can’t remember who I am much less how he figured it out.”

“And he doesn’t have that info stored anywhere?”

“I destroyed all of the information that he had collected on me.” Bruce said. 

Edward relaxed slightly upon hearing that. If that was true then they were safe for now. Bruce’s gaze slid off of Edward and went down to the Batsuit that was in front of him.

“You and Bane have proven to me that I have been a bit too relaxed with my identity. Just wearing a mask isn’t going to cut it.” Bruce said as he frowned. “We need to remedy that.”

“You know we can’t remedy everything, right? You can’t exactly hide the fact that your vehicles are probably expensive and take a lot of money to make.” Edward pointed out.

“I know, but we can fix some things. It’s better to adjust what we can rather then not do anything at all.”

 _‘Fair enough.’_ Edward thought.

It was a good idea to adjust what they could so it wasn’t as easy to figure out who Batman was. Not that it was easy from the start, but the fact that Edward and Bane had been able to figure it out meant that it wasn’t impossible.

Edward stared at Bruce for a moment before he said “Alright, first off you need to change your voice. You sound exactly the same regardless of if you are in the suit or if you are out of the suit. It wouldn’t be a huge deal normally, but you are a public figure. If someone is really paying attention they will notice.” 

Strangely, Bruce didn’t seem surprised by the news. He looked unhappy about hearing it, but not surprised.

“I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that you already knew that.” Edward said with a slight frown. 

“I think it’s what convinced Bane that I was Batman. When I found his hideout he made sure that I saw the recordings of me as Bruce and Batman saying the same thing.” Bruce said unhappily. 

“What did you say that convinced him?” 

“Ran out of time.” Bruce said with a scowl.

It was like saying those words was somehow physically painful for him. Considering the fact that Bane apparently came and wrecked the Batcave maybe it was to be expected. Although, now that Edward was thinking about it he was starting to wonder if Alfred got attacked by Bane at all. The man seemed just as involved in the Batman life as Bruce himself was, so chances were high that the man was in the cave when Bane attacked. 

Edward couldn’t help but look for the older man now that he was thinking of him. It was easy enough to spot the man. He was over in the training area with trash bags in hand slowly throwing away the unsalvageable rubble that covered the area. He looked fine, and didn’t show any signs that he was in pain at all. Of course enough days had passed since Christmas Eve that any injuries he got from Bane could have healed by now. At any rate if Bruce’s butler had been hurt during the attack that could be another reason why the very thought of Bane made Bruce angry. Whatever the case asking Bruce if Alfred got hurt during Bane’s attack seemed like a poor idea. No point in dwelling on it. Bruce looked like he would like to move on from the subject anyway.

“So what are you going to do about your voice?” Edward asked. “You could use a voice disguiser like I do. It would be easy enough for me to install something like that into your mask.”

“I don’t want to rely on technology too much here. Tech can break, and I don’t want to become over relent on it for that reason.” Bruce said. “Then you better take up voice acting lessons as soon as you can.” Edward said as he crossed his arms.

“Know the number of a good teacher?” Bruce asked with a small crooked smile. 

Edward was pretty sure he was joking when he said that. He sounded so genuine when he was asking that it was a little hard to tell. 

Either way Edward just gave the man a smile of his own as he said “Sorry, voice acting is not a hobby that I have ever had a desire to pursue.”

Bruce seemed a bit more relaxed now as he said “I’ll figure out how to get some lessons. With any luck I’ll be able to pull off a convincing act with some training.” 

“I’ll make a voice disguiser that we can slip into the mask while I'm here anyway. If your lessons don’t work, we will have my tech to fall back on.”

“And if we don’t need it?” Bruce asked.

Edward shrugged as he said “I’m sure I can find some sort of use for it.”

“Besides the voice I know I should adjust my height.” Bruce said as he placed his hands down on the table in front of him. “I can add a few inches to the boots without making it obvious.” Bruce said as he looked down at the suit.

“While you are doing that I could add some white lenses to the mask.” Edward offered. 

Bruce looked up only to have Edward say “You have some rather striking blue eyes. You need to hide that.”

“Technically it has lenses in it already, but it only comes down when the Detective Mode program is on. Altering the cowl is not going to be as easy as just popping some lenses in.” Bruce said.

“Detective Mode?” Edward said slowly as he walked toward the table.

His curiosity has been piqued. He felt that familiar itch in his hands that made him want to take something apart so he could see how something ticked. He could feel the questions bubbling in his head desperately wanting to be asked. He couldn’t help but be excited. When Edward’s interest was caught it was pretty much all over. He had to know about the thing. He had to ask a hundreds questions just to become satisfied. It was his nature to do so much to most people’s displeasure. Edward didn’t know if Bruce would care much if Edward peppered him with questions. Honestly, he didn’t care. He wanted to know about this program and by god he was going to get his information. 

Edward placed his hands on the table and grinned at Bruce as he said “Why don’t you tell me about this Detective Mode first before you assume that this adjustment to the mask will be difficult. I promise you that this mask will be ready to go before the day is done…”

\-------------------------------------------

“Alright, I think I got it.”

Bruce couldn’t help but look up from his work upon hearing Edward say that. He couldn’t help but be a little surprised to hear Edward say that. It had only been an hour and a half since Bruce informed the man about the difficulties that would be involved in adjusting the cowl, and most of that time had been spent with Bruce answering Edward’s questions. When Bruce had agreed to answer Edward’s questions about the cowl the man shot off questions with unparalleled speed. 

_What does Detective Mode do?_

_How do you turn it on and off?_

_How did you create it?_

_What did you use to create the cowl?_

_Do you have any schematics on the cowl that I can look at?_

The questions sprang out of Edward’s mouth in an almost never ending flow. When Bruce would finish answering one question Edward would immediately ask another. He asked so many questions that by the time Edward had finally gotten all of the answers that he wanted Bruce was seriously starting to wonder if they should have made Edward’s superhero name The Question instead. Bruce didn’t mind all that much. It was sort of nice to be able to talk about his tech with someone else other than Alfred and Lucius Fox. It also helped that Bruce already knew that Edward completely understood what he was saying. Bruce couldn’t help but think that one day he should introduce Edward to Lucius. He just knew that the two of them could talk shop for hours on end. Edward thrust the cowl toward Bruce and said “Here try it out and tell me if everything seems to be in working order.” Bruce took the mask from Edward and slid it on. The now permanent lenses were perfect, and didn’t impair his vision in any way.

 _‘So far so good.'_ Bruce thought as he turned on Detective Mode. 

The program flicked on without any issue, and the familiar view that the program provided. Since Edward was standing right in front of him Bruce was immediately given a view of his skeleton along with a monitor that told him Edward’s heart rate and other general information. His heart rate was normal, and Edward was the perfect picture of a calm. All in all it looked like everything was in working order. Still, Bruce couldn’t help but frown. The program was working perfectly, but thanks to the program Bruce noticed something wrong about Edward’s skeleton. The man’s bones had plenty of signs that showed that the man had broken and fractured a lot of bones in the past. From what Bruce could see all of his bones healed up just fine, but the amount of healed injuries was concerning. He had more injuries then someone in his profession should have.

“What’s wrong? Is it not working?” Bruce heard Edward ask.

“It’s nothing.” Bruce said as he flicked Detective Mode off. “It’s working perfectly.”

Edward looked like he didn’t believe Bruce when he said that nothing was wrong, but apparently he decided not to question it. 

“So that should finish up the basic adjustments to your suit on my side of things. Did you finish the boots?” Edward asked.

Bruce didn’t answer at first. He was still trying to decide if he should ask about Edward’s old injuries. Edward knew what Detective Mode did so the man had to know that Bruce would have seen the damage. He had to know that Bruce would be curious. Although, Bruce was sure that Edward wouldn’t exactly want to discuss how he got all of those old injuries of his. They had an alliance in place, but that alliance was still in its infancy. There was no real trust built up between the two yet. Maybe further on down the line Edward would be willing to discuss it, but for now Bruce was sure that the man would react poorly if Bruce brought it up. Worse comes to worse Bruce could do some digging around on his own free time to figure out the mystery. For now Bruce was willing to just mentally make note of his little discovery so that he could bring it up at a better time. The silence between them had gone on just long enough that it was starting to become awkward. Bruce shifted his gaze off of Edward and onto the table where the Bat suit was lying.

“I finished them.” Bruce said. “Now we can move on to the more combat oriented upgrades.”

“You sound like you already have an upgrade in mind.” Edward said as a small smile graced his face.

“I do.” Bruce said as he grabbed one of the gloves that was lying on the table. “When the Electrocutioner died I took his shock gloves and incorporated them into the suit. They proved to useful, but sometimes it takes time for them to charge up.”

“So you want to make a gadget where there is no wait? Like a shock gun or something?” Edward asked.

“Something like that.” Bruce said with a nod of his head.

“I could make something like that easily.” Edward said slowly as he picked up the glove that was still on the table. “However, I have a few suggestions.”

“And what would that be?”

“Keep the gloves as they are. It will be good to have it just in case something happens to the gun. If the gun breaks or gets lost, you’ll still have the gloves to fall back on.” Edward suggested.

“I was planning on turning the gloves in to the police here soon. The police force has a few unsolved crimes that they could pin on Electrocutioner if they had his weapon.” Bruce commented. 

Edward just rolled his eyes in what seemed to be slight annoyance as he said “You act like we can’t recreate the gloves. We aren’t exactly dealing with high tech technology here Bruce.”

Edward dropped the glove that he was holding back onto the table as he said “I’ll make some replacement gloves for you on my free time at home. I have th-“ 

Bruce quickly cut him off by saying “Make the gloves here.”

Edward frowned upon hearing that. He crossed his arms and gave Bruce a look that seemed to scream _‘Well, are you going to explain why or do I have to pull the answer out of you?’_

“I have the things that you need to make the gloves here. It’s just easier for you to make them here.” Bruce said. 

While what he said was true and the argument was sound underneath it all there was an unsaid sentence that Bruce couldn’t quite bring himself to say outloud. 

_I don’t trust you enough to make my gadgets without me being there to see you do it._

Bruce may have not said that out loud, but the fact that Edward looked even more annoyed upon hearing that seemed to imply that he understood the hidden meaning anyway. It’s not like Edward could be surprised. Their partnership was still brand new. Bruce didn’t trust Edward enough yet to give the man free reign over any Batman related thing. Heck, if it was up to him Edward wouldn’t even know who Batman truly was yet. Bruce would have only let that secret be known once they were a few months into their partnership. Unfortunately, Edward had let that genie out of the bottle all on his own. There wasn’t much of a reason to hide the Batcave after that. 

Bruce wasn’t thrilled with that fact, but at the same time he couldn’t complain too much. The man had helped him figure out a few flaws in his secret identity, and he was starting to prove that he was pretty good at making gadgets. With the Batcave’s tech Bruce had no doubt that Edward could make some useful things for him. However, while he trusted that the man could make great tools for him he didn’t trust him to make it on his own yet. The last thing Bruce needed was for the man shove some sort of nasty program into his gadgets to use against Bruce in the off chance that their partnership became sour. Edward was silent for a long time. He just stood there and stared at Bruce with a frown on his face. Eventually Edward let out a frustrated sounding sigh as his shoulders slumped in what seemed to be defeat.

“Fine, I’ll make them here if that’s what you want.” Edward said. “However, I won’t be able to work on that gun until I’m done remaking the gloves.”

Bruce just smirked as he said “You act like I’m incapable of making gadgets on my own. I can get the work started on the gun, and a friend of mine can help me complete it.” 

“Who’s this friend of yours? I have a feeling you’re not talking about your butler.”

“Come now I think you ripped enough secrets out of me for the time being.” Bruce said as he continued to smirk. “Where’s the fun in me telling you everything right off the bat?”

Edward’s mood seemed to lighten slightly upon hearing that. 

“It’s no fun to have unanswered questions either you know.” Edward said as he leaned back against the railing that was behind him. 

Bruce had nothing to say to that.

The silence between them lasted only for a few seconds before Edward finally said “I get the message. I won’t pry for details.”

Bruce relaxed slightly upon hearing, but he tensed a bit when he heard Edward ask “However, once I proven my trustworthiness to you will you let me in? I refuse to be kept in the dark forever.”

Bruce was silent for a long time after hearing that. Edward didn’t push him to speak. He just stood there waiting for Bruce’s response.

Bruce eventually responded with “Alright, but I hope you know that the same holds for you.”

“Oh? My secrets in exchange for yours?” Edward said as a small smirk briefly graced his face.

“It’s not quite like that.” Bruce muttered.

“I know what you mean.” Edward said before Bruce could start explaining. “Trust is a two-way street especially in this odd little business that we have found ourselves in.”

Edward frowned a bit as he said “Although, I must admit I don’t know what deep dark secret you think you will hear from me that will be all that interesting.”

The image of Edward’s healed bones quickly flashed in Bruce’s head upon hearing that, but he was quick to push that thought to the side. Bruce turned away from Edward and looked down at the suit that was lying on the table.

“I wouldn’t say that. You have a few mysteries about yourself that helps you to live up to your old title of Enigma.”

From the corner of his eye Bruce could see Edward giving him a rather curious look. He expected to get that look, but unfortunately Ed’s curiosity would not be satisfied tonight. The talk of secrets was over, and it was time to get back to work.

Bruce smiled a small smile as he looked back over at Edward and said “Come on we have a lot of work to do if we want to get these gadgets finished in time for my nightly patrol…”


End file.
